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Ted Farnen, BJ '87

What do you do?
Since January of 2005, I have been the chief of staff for Sen. Chuck Graham, the state senator from Columbia. I handle the day-to-day operations of the senator's Capitol office. In addition, I also help assist in developing legislation and media relations, and I also represent the senator when he can't attend certain events.

Best professional lesson learned at the J-School?
How to write on deadline. Putting the important stuff first and filling it out as you go along (the inverted pyramid!) really helps when you have limited time to complete an assignment.

What would be your best advice to current students?
To be intellectually curious. Try to read a couple of newspapers a day, or at least look at various news sites on the Internet. Knowing a little bit about a lot of things really helps when you're doing general assignment reporting.

What are you working on currently?
There are different legislative issues that our office deals with during every session of the Senate. However, some of the constant issues are funding of state services, helping enhance the University of Missouri and assisting constiutents with their concerns.

What do you consider to be your greatest professional achievement?
I believe my greatest achievements came while as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, especially in the field of higher education. During my eight years in the House, I sponsored legislation that created a new loan forgiveness program that helps keep key students in Missouri, a plan that helps families save money for higher education, and I sponsored the legislation that took the state sales tax off of all college textbooks.

What makes you good at your job?
You'd have to ask my superiors if I'm good at my job. But in all of my jobs I have tried to work well with others, even those with whom I disagreed.

What did you want to be as a kid?
When I was very young, I thought it would be cool to be a fireman or a mailman. By the time I got to high school, however, I knew I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. I got to do this with the Missourian and then for two and a half years at The Sedalia Democrat.

What is something about you that might surprise people?
People might be surprised at some of my other previous jobs. I've been a janitor, a candy store cashier and I ran a fireworks stand.