Alumni Spotlight - Athena Jones '94

Athena Jones '94

White House Producer for NBC News

Athena Jones has been covering the White House since Inauguration Day 2008.  She has traveled with Pres. Barack Obama to nearly a nearly a dozen countries since she began covering his presidential campaign last year. As a campaign reporter for NBC News and the National Journal, Athena followed both the Clinton and the Obama campaigns for president in 2007 and 2008, writing stories, shooting and editing videos and appearing on MSNBC to report on breaking news during the campaign. She has also worked as a freelance segment producer at CNN in New York and was part of the NBC News Associates program in 2004.

Athena began her career in journalism as a wire reporter in South America, where she spent four years covering politics, trade, agriculture, mining, arts and the economy in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She also covered elections and other events in Bolivia and Peru.

Athena graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1999 with a Master of Science in journalism. After graduating from Columbia, she spent the summer studying in Cairo, Egypt as part of a program run by Duke University and the American University of Cairo designed to educate graduate students about the country and the region. Athena earned a Bachelor's degree in government from Harvard University in 1998. Because she took several Advanced Placement classes while at Cate, Athena was able to graduate with just 3 years of course work. Rather than finishing a year early, she spent her third year interning in Washington for a congressman from her home state of Texas before traveling to Spain to spend a semester studying at the University of Madrid-Complutense. She then returned to Harvard for a final year and finished with her original class. It was during her time in Washington and Spain that Athena decided not to follow her parents, cousins and numerous other family members into the law profession and to become a journalist instead.

1. In your experience as a journalist, what is the most interesting story you have ever covered?

Aside from the 2008 presidential campaign, which was a wild ride, I'd say the most interesting times I've had as a journalist were down in South America when I covered Argentina's economic crisis. With the economy falling apart in a country that had little faith in banks or in politicians, it wasn't uncommon to hear about people who pulled their money out of banks and stuffed it under their mattresses, only to later be robbed of their life's savings. It was an unsettling time. Kidnappings for ransom rose as another way of taking advantage of so-called mattress money; protestors set tires on fire and blocked roads frequently; mobs looted supermarkets; people posing as taxi drivers robbed their unsuspecting passengers; and, there were stories of politicians in one faraway province awarding themselves with gold-plated medals while the people they served persisted largely on yerba mate, a kind of tea. The president in neighboring Uruguay even called Argentine politicians "a gang of thieves." The most memorable moment I ever witnessed was the night around Christmastime 2001 when thousands of people hit the streets of Buenos Aires, banging pots and pans, in a spontaneous protest against the government. They converged on the Casa Rosada -- Argentina's equivalent of the White House -- set a bonfire out front, sprayed it with political graffiti, and demanded that Pres. Fernando de la Rua step down. The next day, we watched from the 25th floor of our office building on the coast of the Rio de la Plata as de la Rua flew by in the presidential helicopter, which he had boarded from the roof of the Casa Rosada, for the last time. It was crazy sending headlines out to the world and having friends from abroad ask if we were serious when we said the government had declared a state of siege. 

There were also fun stories like a piece I wrote on cattle thieves in a tiny, far-flung provincial town and another I did on an international tango competition.

2. What is your favorite part about covering the White House?

By far, the best part of covering the White House has been the travel. I've gotten to go to three continents with the president this year alone, plus the Caribbean, and I've been able to witness several important foreign policy speeches. I'd say one of the most memorable moments so far was following Obama and his entourage around the pyramids in Cairo. However visiting Red Square in Moscow, the Forbidden City in Beijing, and seeing the crowd respond at his big speeches in Egypt and Ghana were also pretty cool. I've been able to visit with friends all over the world during my travels.

3. You have accomplished so much at such a young age!  What do you see yourself doing in ten years?

That's a tough question. It's the eternal question, and I'm not really sure how to answer it. TV news can be exciting. I do miss print, though; I could see myself writing a book or two and maybe some long magazine pieces, even if I do stay in television.

4.  Do you ever sleep? :)

Ha. I do sleep. The schedule is pretty predictable when the president is in Washington. It's when we're on the road that the hours can sometimes become less than humane, especially when we're in some place that's 14 hours ahead of New York, like Tokyo, and we have to work overnight to put together a Nightly News spot that ends up airing at 630pm Eastern on Friday, which is actually 830am Saturday for us.

5.  What is your favorite memory of Cate?

There are way too many for me to choose just one. Is it ok if I do a stream of consciousness list? If so, I'd say late nights talking in the dorm; hiking the Kern River junior year; the flat coastal hike on Catalina Island with Mrs. Ellis that was anything but flat; pretty much every single Outings Week had a great moment or 10; Free Days!!!; sitting on the bench behind Long House and watching for shooting stars; advisee dinners; Los Ninos trips; stuffing a fox in Mrs. Powers' AP Biology class -- it was pretty gross and the class kicked us outside so we wouldn't stink up the Biology lab but we felt so accomplished when we finally finished; finding out who was sitting at my table for formal dinners; traveling for track meets and the joyousness of the first day of school coupled with the bitter sweetness of leaving for summer vacation.