For Eric Schwarz, who graduated from UVM in 1983, storytelling is the heart of humanity and the key to creating change in our world today. His infatuation with storytelling began at UVM as he worked for The Vermont Cynic. It was a love that stuck with him in college and later guided him throughout his career.
The summer after his freshman year at UVM, Eric Schwarz headed to Colorado for an internship working on the re-election campaign of US Senator Gary Hart. It was a transformative experience for Schwarz, and he ended up staying through election day in November, taking the fall semester off from UVM and returning in January. On the campaign trail Schwarz was able to observe big-time reporters like Ken Walsh from the Denver Post and Charlie Roos from the Rocky Mountain News in action, as they flocked to the candidate’s offices in order to cover election progress. Schwarz was surprised by the power and influence reporters held in politics; he remembers noticing that “these are people folks look to,” an impression that lasted in his mind. The following semester at UVM, he began writing for the Cynic where his passion for storytelling took hold. This was in 1981, the year Bernie Sanders was first elected as Mayor of Burlington. It was an exciting year for political reporting and for Schwarz himself, as he saw his pieces sparking conversation across campus with professors and students alike.
After graduation, Eric spent about five years working as a journalist, starting at the progressive Oakland Tribune in California before joining the Patriot Ledger, a small family-owned paper that covered local news in the greater Boston area. Being a reporter taught Schwarz how to gather information, illustrate choices, and draw together a narrative from many different perspectives. In our interview, Schwarz reflected that these are skills he constantly relies on today, even as he has stepped away from journalism and moved into the nonprofit world.
The most rewarding moment of Schwarz’s journalism career came in 1989, when he and a team of reporters from the Patriot Ledger were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. However, the source of pride for Eric wasn’t the honor of the nomination, but the positive wake their stories left behind. This project, the 1989 series: Quincy’s Newest Immigrants, was a 4-month long project that resulted in 12 magazine-style articles, which were then released over the course of 12 days. The pieces looked at the influx of Asian-Americans in Quincy, Massachusetts, as the city’s Asian-American population ballooned from 500 to 12,000 in a short period of time, sparking racism as well as, gradually, more acceptance.
The paper realized that this surge of immigration would transform the city forever and Quincy could either open its arms to newcomers in a way that would strengthen the city, or it could become even more divided. The articles written worked to welcome AAPI populations using statistics that directly challenged negative stereotypes and racist beliefs while using personal narratives to increase acceptance and build understanding.
Over a thousand readers canceled their subscriptions after the articles were released, an intense blow to a small news source; however, the articles also sparked a positive response and the transformation of the city that followed made it worthwhile. The journalists utilized stories, gathered by conducting street-wide interviews, to carry across larger trends, themes, and truths. In doing so, a shift in dialogue occurred, ignorance that had once dominated public opinion was being pushed to the side, as social service programs gained more funding and Quincy ushered in a new era of welcome. The series was living proof of something Eric Schwarz deeply believes:
“Stories + Facts = Changed minds”
Today Schwarz is seeking change in a different way. He founded The College for Social Innovation (CFSI), which partners with universities all across the Northeast to give students a chance to spend a semester interning for credit in the social sector. The college runs an internship program called Semester in the City (SITC) where students receive 15 credits to work 30 hours a week at a nonprofit and take 2 classes, all while living together in Boston.
His reporting roots helped inspire the design of CFSI. Schwarz’s time as a journalist gave him an education about public affairs, while keeping him connected to a community of changemakers. He wanted these same factors to be true of the College for Social Innovation. Outside of the internship experience, the curriculum of the SITC program focuses on social equity and storytelling. As people, we are naturally inspired by those around us; in turn, our innovations come from our experiences and our relationships. Many classes focus on identity, analyzing the ways we interact with the world to help students appreciate the community aspect of storytelling. Schwarz believes you need to know yourself and understand your voice before you can tell stories that connect people.
In today’s media positive stories are hard to find; so many stories come bearing grave, time-sensitive, or heartbreaking news. But Schwarz encourages reporters to look for that hope and try to “catch people doing the right thing.” In the 1989 series: Quincy’s Newest Immigrants, the team did this by searching for positive reactions, even in the simplest of places. Picture residents walking next door to welcome Asian families to the neighborhood, or police officers taking racist actions seriously. This type of storytelling allows us to establish a common language in our shared humanity. Stories lie at the core of our human identities, as Eric Schwarz explains “we see ourselves in the stories we hear, and the right stories will empower us to change.”