{"id":12790,"date":"2015-08-03T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=12790"},"modified":"2019-06-18T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T19:50:08","slug":"double-degrees-make-for-well-rounded-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/double-degrees-make-for-well-rounded-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Degrees Make for Well-Rounded Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/06\/Billman-Wordpress.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12791\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/06\/Billman-Wordpress.jpg\" alt=\"Billman\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/06\/Billman-Wordpress.jpg 250w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/06\/Billman-Wordpress-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/06\/Billman-Wordpress-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Jeffrey Billman, \u201901, \u201910, earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism and master\u2019s degree in political science from UCF. Billman says his political science degree has given him a deeper sense of the political and policy spheres, making him an immensely better writer, especially regarding politics. Billman\u2019s bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism provided the fundamentals for his career in writing, crafting an effective combination of political and writing skill sets.<\/p>\n<p>Billman\u2019s work experience ranges from working as senior writer and news editor at Orlando Weekly, news editor at Philadelphia City Paper, senior editor and writer at large at Philadelphia Magazine, to freelance work with Rollins College, Florida Hospital, New York Times, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Billman recently moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to work as the Raleigh news editor for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indyweek.com\/\">INDY Week<\/a>. He lives there with his wife and two dogs.<\/p>\n<p>Billman says UCF opened up many opportunities for him. His political science and journalism education from UCF has brought him to where he is today in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Billman shared more on his time at UCF, his current position, and offered advice to current students and alumni.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why did you choose to attend UCF?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I was working as a journalist in Orlando, and I was able to work while I was in the master\u2019s program.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your best UCF memory? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>That\u2019s tough. I don\u2019t know that one stands out above the others. So many to choose from.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your favorite thing about your job? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>There is a certain\u00a0satisfaction in giving voice to the voiceless\u00a0and challenging the status quo. And when you get a big story just right, there\u2019s nothing quite like that feeling.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your most memorable experience on the job? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Back in 2007 or so, the cops got mad over something I wrote and tried to charge my publication with racketeering. That was \u2026 fun.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What piece of advice would you give to current students as well as UCF\u00a0alumni? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Enjoy yourself. Especially if you\u2019re not going to spend the rest of your life in academia, grad school is perhaps the last time you\u2019ll be pushed and challenged in quite this way, and quite likely your last big book learning experience. It\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s also wonderful.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Billman answered some fun questions in our \u2018get to know you\u2019 portion of the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What or who inspires you? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>My wife. She is the world\u2019s greatest human. But also writers and advocates and people who are trying to\u00a0change the world or at least their corner of it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the hardest thing you have ever done? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Leaving Florida and everything we knew for Philadelphia, which was a strange and foreign place to us.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is your favorite holiday (and why)? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Christmas, I suppose. My mother, like her mother before her, has always made a big deal out of\u00a0Christmas. Lots of great memories.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What did you want to be when you grew up? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019m not sure I ever wanted to be anything. I mean, I wanted to be an athlete, but DNA was not my friend in that regard.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeffrey Billman, \u201901, \u201910, earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism and master\u2019s degree in political science from UCF. Billman says his political science degree has given him a deeper sense of the political and policy spheres, making him an immensely better writer, especially regarding politics. Billman\u2019s bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism provided the fundamentals for his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":12791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5962,31,20,38,40,17,13,37,16,41,25,28,29],"tags":[3457,3466,3470,3516,3518,3520,3593,3614],"class_list":["post-12790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-science-alumni","category-alumni-news","category-psaclassnotes","category-breaking-news","category-graduate-student-news","category-ps-ma-highlight","category-news","category-communication","category-political-science-departments","category-shining-knights","category-staff-news","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-ucf","tag-ucf-alumni","tag-ucf-alumni-spotlight","tag-ucf-college-of-sciences","tag-ucf-college-of-sciences-alumni","tag-ucf-college-of-sciences-alumni-spotlight","tag-ucf-nicholson-school-of-communication","tag-ucf-political-science-alumni"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Double Degrees Make for Well-Rounded Career - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/double-degrees-make-for-well-rounded-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Double Degrees Make for Well-Rounded Career - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jeffrey Billman, \u201901, \u201910, earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism and master\u2019s degree in political science from UCF. Billman says his political science degree has given him a deeper sense of the political and policy spheres, making him an immensely better writer, especially regarding politics. 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