Welcome!

Julia Rentsch | Portfolio Website

I am a multidisciplinary writer, editor, graphic designer, and researcher with a passion for clear and effective communication. Helping others learn, whether it’s by reporting long-form journalism or teaching media literacy, is my passion and my skill area.

Continue on this page to learn more about me and my journey so far. Navigate via the menu above to see more detailed examples of my work, review some of my awards, or head straight to my resume.

In a nutshell…

I have written for a variety of publications, including several years as a staff reporter at daily newspapers (Loveland Reporter-Herald, Delmarva Daily Times), written freelance and on-spec (Headwaters Magazine), and have a track record of assuming leadership roles (Barnes & Noble, manager; The Rocky Mountain Collegian, editor-in-chief; Rancocas Valley Singers, board of directors).

Currently, I am studying for a Master’s degree in Communication Research at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. My areas of interest include misinformation, democracy, technology, and policy.

My work in journalism: A summary

Some examples of my cover stories in the Daily Times and the Eastern Shore News during my years on Delmarva. I wrote about the ethics of increasing the welfare of chickens raised for meat, revealed that federal officials knew much more about PFAS contamination in local drinking water wells than they had previously stated publicly, and dove in deep on the tricky nature of transplanting oyster spat to the bivalve’s severely depleted Chesapeake Bay populations.

As a regional environmental reporter on the Delmarva Peninsula:

I covered every marsh, beach, city and drainage ditch on the Delmarva Peninsula. My work appeared in both Delmarva Now and Delaware Online, Wilmington’s local Gannett paper, as well as Virginia’s Eastern Shore News. I reported on topics like the health of Chesapeake Bay, industrial poultry, water contamination with PFAS, H-2B visa workers, COVID-19, new research, offshore wind development, oil spills, activism, and more. My main goal in this role was to write supplemental daily content while focusing most of my time on long-term watchdog stories that deliver environmental news in context for our audience.

See some examples →

A few examples of when my reporting and photography were featured on the cover of the Loveland Reporter-Herald daily newspaper. From left to right, I wrote and photographed a beloved coffee shop that was reopening, a fundraiser for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a teacher of the year doing amazing things in her classroom, and a rambunctious Easter egg hunt event.

As a city reporter in Loveland, Colorado:

I reported on the contentious council that governed the decidedly purple city of about 80,000. I reported on city news, such as budget allocations, land development, campaign finance concerns, elections, in addition to the city council’s decisions and interpersonal conflicts. This role called for me to be up for virtually anything: I wrote about domesticated pigs; a full-sized house that someone abandoned on another person’s property without permission; and, once, more than 80 pet rats that someone left out in the cold. My photography and video production skills were often called upon to make supplementary content.

See some of my photography →

Cover images of some of the issues of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, a daily college paper, which were published during my tenure as the publication’s editor in chief.

I graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Journalism and Media Communication in May 2017 with an interdisciplinary minor in Global Environmental Sustainability.

During my senior year, I served as editor-in-chief of our daily student newspaper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian:

In the role of editor, I oversaw a staff of nearly 70 student journalists with a core team of about 15 editors and producers. My task was to balance the Collegian’s missions: to serve the campus community with high-quality news and to facilitate a ‘learning lab’ for our journalists-in-training. Some of our most notable stories broke news of a star basketball player accused of sexual assault, the effect of President Trump’s travel ban on CSU’s international students and a hate crime of vandalism against the local mosque. 

A significant problem I helped solve during this time was a lack of funding: while The Collegian received some funding from student fees, it was not enough to cover our expenses even with the additional income from ad sales. I initiated a significant change in the structure of the paper’s sponsored content, which effectively helped support our operations through the semester.

As EiC, I helped our team reach our four-month goal of 500,000 pageviews and earn an Online Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press.

Review my awards →

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