Olivia Aldridge ’17
Senior Health Reporter
NPR Member Station KUT in Austin, Texas

Olivia Aldridge ‘17 arrived at Presbyterian College in the fall of 2013 with an interest in writing and some uncertainty as to where that interest might lead.

But four years of hard work and a transformative internship experience later, Aldridge laid the foundation for a successful journalism career—one that would take her from telling the stories of flood victims in South Carolina to becoming the senior health reporter for NPR member station KUT in Austin, Texas.

Her journey highlights not just her perseverance and talent, but also the role that her liberal arts education at PC played in shaping her career.

Finding journalism at PC

“I definitely had some interest in journalism, like probably since elementary school, because I always was really interested in writing,” Aldridge said. “And I was like, well, how do I make a career out of that? Because people are really dismissive of that idea.”

Though she considered paths like academia or creative writing, Aldridge took steps during her time at PC to ensure journalism was an option for her. She wrote for The BlueStocking, PC’s student newspaper, and took advantage of opportunities beyond the classroom, including internships and special programs that enhanced her experience.

Two of her most formative experiences at PC involved research – a Summer Fellows project under the guidance of history professor Dr. Anita Gustafson, now PC’s president, and the Textile Mill Memory Project led by associate professor of English Dr. Kendra Hamilton.

“I was collecting oral histories of people who had memory of the textile mills when they were here,” Aldridge recalled. “I wasn’t really doing reporting then, but I was interviewing people and collecting their stories. That was an early experience of me learning to navigate that.”

Looking back, she recognizes that the project was an introduction to the art of interviewing—a skill that has become central to her work today. “I wish I knew then what I know now,” she said. “There’s just so much art to interviewing people.”

The transformative power of internships

The summer before her senior year, Aldridge interned with South Carolina Public Radio, an experience that set her on her current path. “I was producing this particular segment for them that ran every week called Narrative,” she said. “At the time, South Carolina had had a series of really devastating hurricanes and floods, and I was telling the stories of people affected by the thousand-year flood that happened in 2015.”

The internship turned into a part-time position during her senior year, and when a junior reporting position opened up at the station around the time of her graduation, she applied—and got the job.

For the next year, Aldridge focused on flood recovery stories, covering agriculture, home rebuilding, and economic impacts in the region. Eventually, she expanded into general assignment reporting before deciding to make a move to Austin in 2018. Hoping to stay in public radio, she tried unsuccessfully at first to land a job at the local NPR station.

That setback didn’t deter her. Aldridge took a position at Community Impact, a local newspaper covering city councils, school boards, and suburban news across Texas.

“The pandemic happened in that time, and I was covering Travis County’s commissioner’s court,” she said. “All of the official stuff about COVID was coming through the city and county. I sort of became this de facto pandemic reporter in my office and learned a lot about the healthcare system, which eventually led me to the job I have now.”

She also found a way to bring her love of audio journalism back into her work, launching and running weekly news podcasts covering the Austin, Houston, and Dallas metro areas. But her goal remained public radio. After multiple applications and interviews, she landed the role of healthcare reporter at KUT.

The impact of a liberal arts education

Aldridge credits PC’s liberal arts foundation for preparing her for the adaptability and critical thinking that journalism requires. “Honestly, I am a huge proponent of the English major,” she said. “Just learning to really write and communicate well was so valuable.”

Her coursework at PC exposed her to a variety of disciplines, an experience that she believes made her a better reporter. “As a reporter, you kind of have to be prepared to immediately drop everything and learn something new very quickly,” she said. “It may be something you knew nothing about before, and you have to become an expert on it in a day. It helps to have had the experience of diving into different things, knowing how to research well, and asking the right questions.”

She also benefited from PC’s partnerships, including the Washington Semester Program, which allowed her to take journalism classes in Washington, D.C. “That experience helped me,” she said, emphasizing the value of real-world exposure alongside classroom learning.

Covering healthcare and looking ahead

Now at KUT, Aldridge focuses on Texas’ local health systems and statewide health news, sometimes contributing to NPR’s national coverage. “Right now, I am one of not a lot of people who are reporting really closely on Austin’s local hospitals and public health districts,” she said. “It’s not really sexy news, but it is really important and it touches everyone in the community, especially people who are lower income and rely on public resources.”

One of her most meaningful early stories remains her coverage of how farmers in South Carolina recovered from devastating floods. “Farmers can be tough to interview because they’re really practical people, and they’re not ‘look at me’ people,” she said. “But I’m from a farming family—my dad’s a farmer—so I felt like I was really able to break through those conversations because of that cultural knowledge.”

For Aldridge, local journalism is where she feels most at home. “I had to work really hard to get the job that I have, and it’s an amazing job,” she said. “I really am passionate about local reporting. There’s not enough of it, and I like feeling engaged in my own community.”

Advice for future journalists

To students considering PC, Aldridge encourages them to embrace the broad opportunities of a liberal arts education. “A lot of people who care about you are going to want you to do something that makes sense to them—something that has a clear job path,” she said. “That’s not what a liberal arts education necessarily provides you. It prepares you for lots of things, but you have to take the next step and say, ‘How am I going to apply all this stuff I’ve learned?’”

For those interested in journalism, she reassures them that there’s more than one path to success. “I look around at the newsrooms I’ve worked in, and there’s a real mix—some people went to formal journalism school, but I’ve worked with a number of English and history majors, and they all bring something different.”

Though she’s not sure exactly what the future holds, one thing is certain: her foundation in storytelling, curiosity, and adaptability will continue to serve her well, wherever her journalism career takes her next.