By Jonathan Siegel | Talon Staff
A lot of reporters dream of covering a story with international implications. Tallahassee Community College alumna and Axios reporter Ursula Perano covered two such stories in less than a month.
Perano, who is based in Washington D.C., provided coverage on the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol and also covered the following impeachment of former President Trump.
In addition to her Capitol insurrection coverage, Perano has covered stories ranging from international relations to the declassification of the Jamal Khashoggi report and China’s sanctioning of former United States politicians.
Since graduation, Perano has grown from student to professional reporter by using some of the skills and experience she picked up while enrolled at TCC and FSU. Her persistence and nose to the grindstone mentality hasn’t hurt.
While at FSU, Perano had two internships, one at Politico Florida and the other at the Florida Channel. For both, she covered the state legislature at the Florida Capitol.
“Both internships just threw you into the Capitol,” Perano said. “You were out interviewing lawmakers, going to committees, chasing stories and it was an extremely deep dive. It just threw you into the deep end of the pool but I found I liked that.”
Perano initially intended to pursue a career in politics but found that she had a greater desire to report the news. She ultimately graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from FSU.
Her time at TCC was one that ultimately played an important role in career choice. Perano said a key factor in her education was the one-on-one time with professors at TCC.
“When I ended up transferring to FSU, I had classes where I had 300, 400 students, and it was very hard to create mentorships or relationships with my professors,” Perano said.
Though Perano loves her work in Washington, DC, she has fond memories of her time spent in Florida and longed for the Sunshine State’s beautiful weather in a recent tweet.
“Every day that I wake up for my DC job and it’s cold and wet I wonder why we can’t move the nation’s capital to Florida.”
