Like most NASW members, I strive to be in the mainstream of science writing, and as I stood on the deck of a boat gazing at the lush green banks of the Panama Canal, I figured maybe this was what I had in mind all along. It was October 2004, and steaming up the renowned waterway, I was en route to the jungle-clad Barro Colorado Island, home of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, one of the world's premier centers of investigation of rain forest flora, fauna and ecology. I owed my presence here — and that I was being paid for it — to the NASW job list.
One lucky day late in 2001, a job listing had scrolled across my computer screen. The International Center for Journalism, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit, was seeking Spanish-speaking health writers who had teaching experience and were free to travel. I'd never seen my life summarized in a job ad before, so I answered immediately. Soon I was hired as a leader for a workshop ICFJ was planning for Latin American health writers in Puebla, Mexico, in the spring of 2002.
The program went well, and the travel in Mexico that it subsidized went even better. Three months later, I was off to Santiago, Chile, for a second program. It proved even more successful, and, since visiting southern South America had been a longtime dream, the travel opportunity it offered was a special treat. In 2003 NIH became involved in the workshops. That year's gig was a trip all the way to exotic Bethesda, Maryland, about 10 minutes from my house.
But this year, 2004, NIH and ICFJ took the show to Panama City, at the crossroads of Latin America. Not only did I participate in an outstanding workshop on health writing with gifted journalists from all over the Americas, I spent two weeks discovering the many wonders packed into surprising little Panama. Topping the list was the astounding diversity of rain forest ecology, which we — 25 journalists from all parts of Latin America; four seminar leaders, including fellow NASWer Tom Watkins of CNN; and a dozen staffers from ICFJ and NIH — first glimpsed on a guided hike through the dense vegetation of Barro Colorado.
Of the many gigs the job list has provided me, none other has yet matched the adventure and memories of this one. I've learned, however, that you can never tell where the job list may take you, and when a new job listing lands in my inbox, I open it knowing it could be the next opportunity to go places I had only dreamed of.
About the author: Beryl Lieff Benderly is a freelance writer in Washington, DC, who writes mostly about health and behavior. Her most recent book, however, is Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present.
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