Beyond the Byline: Staff writer Jennifer Whidden's homecoming is also a chance to expand vital climate coverage

When Jenny Whidden left her hometown of Rolling Meadows for college, she thought she would never look back.

While studying journalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Whidden would daydream about reporting on the streets of New York City one day and the sprawl of Los Angeles the next. For her first full-time assignment, she packed her belongings — plus one cat — into a car and drove to the East Coast to cover the New Hampshire State House.

But Whidden slowly discovered the truth in that age-old saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

She missed Lake Michigan, with its 63 miles of striking Illinois shoreline; she missed the food, namely good pizza; and in a development that would shock her teenage self, Whidden missed the Chicago suburbs, an extraordinary outgrowth that she realized is overflowing with vibrancy and diversity.

In a change that is both a homecoming and an expansion of vital news coverage, Whidden joins the Daily Herald this month as its new climate change reporter.

She brings with her a mixed set of experiences, having written for the Chicago Tribune, the New Jersey Star Ledger and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At her first internship for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, Whidden picked up a passion for local journalism. She most recently worked at the Granite State News Collaborative as a New Hampshire State House reporter, covering racial justice related legislation.

In partnership with the national service program Report for America, Whidden will cover the effects of climate change on Chicago's suburbs for the Daily Herald. Her beat will take a global issue and scale it down through a local lens.

Whidden hopes to help readers understand how climate change affects their water and power sources, how their own actions relate to the topic and how their local and state governments are responding.

In her free time, Whidden plans to go on a few hikes, frequent the movie theater and spend time with her friends and family — as well as her cat Princeton, who is very tired of moving around the country and hopes this is the last time.

• Jenny Whidden is a Report For America corps member covering climate change and the environment for the Daily Herald. To help support her work, click here to make a tax-deductible donation.