Hometown intern hits hard news beat

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The Leader’s newsroom is gaining a new but familiar face to the community. Just as Kirk Boxleitner shifts over to edit arts and entertainment news, former intern Carmen Jaramillo, the newest addition to the newsroom, is taking over Boxleitner’s hard news beats. Jaramillo first became connected with The Leader in the summer this year, when she was awarded a scholarship through the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association to serve an eight-week internship program. In the essay along with her application for the scholarship, Jaramillo wrote that working at The Leader would be her number-one choice because of her long association with the area. After she came aboard, the entire staff’s consensus was that she quickly proved herself to be a more than capable journalist. During her tenure as a Leader intern, Jaramillo garnered several front page stories: from the work on regional mental health care systems to the maltreatment of a dog to a Port Hadlock Bay couple’s decision to host a rotting whale carcass. Jaramillo was born in Chula Vista, California, and moved to Port Ludlow when she was 4 years old, when her father was named Executive Officer of Naval Magazine Indian Island. In her 17 years on the Olympic Peninsula, Jaramillo attended both Chimacum Primary and Elementary schools, Jefferson Community School and Port Townsend High School, from which she graduated in 2015. Jaramillo let slip that, while she was at PTHS, she skipped a lot of classes, which prompted Leader Editor Dean Miller to nickname her “The Truant.” Jaramillo studied journalism, political science and French at Washington State University. “I think Jefferson County is the greatest place on earth,” Jaramillo said. “The Leader holds a special place in my heart, because I grew up reading it. There is no community I would rather serve than this one.” Miller said the paper is fortunate to have landed a skilled journalist who already knows her way around the town and its recent history. A former college professor, Miller was careful to note the hiring of Jaramillo is in no way an endorsement of truancy.