Ten Years Later: Drake Magazine grads of 1999

They started 515, won tons of awards, and then went off to make their own way in the world.  I have asked for updates on the grads of 1999.  Here's a start.

Amanda (Bradford) Cortright:  Goodness, 10 years ago I would have never thought I'd dive into the newspaper industry, but here I am. After Drake, I started at a small paper on the southwest coast of Florida as a copy editor and designer. About a year later, I moved to Daytona Beach where I started out again as a copy editor and designer. Over the past nine years here I've moved around within the newspaper, being promoted at points. I started designing 1A on a regular basis, then was moved into the Features department where I was their primary designer. Now I'm the Assitant Features Editor here (the Daytona Beach News-Journal) mainly designing still, but working with reporters/photographers on developing the packages. Fun stuff most days, tho the newspaper industry definitely has its drawbacks lately.

Nicholas Fonseca left Entertainment Weekly on in April; he and his partner Ben are moving to Australia.  Here’s his farewell note to EW: I’m grateful for all of the opportunities that I have had at EW. I’ve wanted to work here since I was 12 years old, and in fact, it’s the reason I went into journalism in the first place. I was blessed enough to get a job here, and it’s a job that has been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. But it’s time to move on and figure out what else I want in life. Ben and I have both been wanting to try out Australia for a few years, and we want to do it while we are young. New York City is always going to be home, and I have no doubt that I’ll be coming back. But why not give something else a try? We will be traveling all over Australia for about six months, participating in a program called WWOOF (wwoof.com.au), through which we’ll join people on their farms/homesteads and helping them out with everything from picking avocados to shearing sheep to regenerating farmland to...you name it. Essentially, we’re going to be living off the land for the rest of the year. It’s a big leap (and a long way from my seat at the Oscars a few years ago), but I’m thrilled to be trying it out. We’ll settle in Sydney around Dec./Jan., and figure out what we want to do next. I’ve got some magazine contacts down under that I’m hoping to utilize. Or maybe I’ll finally become the yoga teacher that I always said I wanted to be.

Jason Oswald: I earned an MBA at Butler University and, in late 2006, Securian Financial Group offered me the opportunity to take a position in the parent company, and I moved to St. Paul in early 2007. I work in mergers and acquisitions, across all of our divisions and businesses, at the enterprise level. Our group also works on corporate strategy, strategic partnerships, and other development activities. I love it! Plus, I still get to use my writing and communications skills. For a while, I had been concerned I was  'losing my edge' - I wasn't excited about the work I was doing and not being able to use anything I had learned. This new position has really re-energized me.

Amanda, Nicholas, and Jason are all on Facebook, as am I.

I would love to hear from more 1999 alums.