I began at PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as a desk assistant in January. The six month program allows desk assistants to rotate between departments including research, editorial, and setup.

Look for my name in the nightly credits!

*Photo courtesy of The Washington Times

In my Dynamic Websites class we are working on search optimization for our websites. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I am the only Catherine Pallenik in the world Google won’t seem to pick up my website. Subsequently, I am constantly tweaking my website and then Googling myself over and over again. While I have yet to see this website come up, a random PDF about an exhibition of my photography is always the top hit.

The exhibition took place in May 2008 at the Czech embassy here in DC and was the first at the embassy to feature work from Americans. I studied photography abroad in Prague at Charles University under Miroslav Vojtechovsky in the Spring of 2007. The experience was amazing. Unfortunately, the photo of me on the PDF is not. Please excuse my crazed look, I’m usually much more photogenic. I swear.

Check it out!

Over Thanksgiving break I went home to New Jersey to celebrate the holiday with old friends. Neighbors and friends of my friends stopped by to share our excess of pies. These friends were fortunate enough to include Ben Fraser and Laura Miller, a husband and wife photojournalist team. Ben and Laura, among other ventures, are in the process of building a business called See Change - Art for a Small Planet. See Change produces multimedia for socially responsible clients in the hopes that their art changes how people see the world and maybe even how they live.

I tend to air on the side of a skeptic and while I love to see good things happen to those who deserve them, I am a realist. Art changing the way we see the world? Really? Well,  kudos to Ben and Laura because if anyone’s going to do it, they will.