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Madison Karas

journalist based in philadelphia, pa

About

Madison is an award-winning journalist from Minneapolis, Minnesota currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She enjoys spending time outside, traveling by rail and meeting new people. Madison is a senior at Temple University double majoring in Journalism and Economics. She is a freelance writer and an Editorial Fellow at News Catalyst. Recently, she was the 2020-2021 Editor-in-Chief of The Temple News, Temple’s independent student newspaper, and 14th Street Magazine, Temple’s student culture magazine. Madison's reported on breaking news and features coverage of housing and food insecurity, labor, small businesses, court filings, nonprofits and more. Her work has won and been finalists for first-place Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards and Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association’s Keystone Student Media Awards. Madison is passionate about local news and her favorite types of stories are ones that capture peoples’ day-to-day lives.

Follow Madison on Twitter @madraekaras.

On endurance thorough unexpected stories

I don’t remember exactly when this year began. Sometimes it feels like the beginning of last May, when I first became Editor-in-Chief and received one of my last emails from my late professor Bryan Monroe when I got the job: “Congratulations, Madison! Very proud of you!!! … ‘When in charge, BE in charge.’” Sometimes it feels like the start of the summer, just a couple months into the pandemic after the academic year ended and last year’s staff were still helping cover Black Lives Matter p

Home care industry strained by pandemic

Ray Wall would have preferred to wait things out a bit before getting the COVID-19 vaccine. He wanted to see how others reacted to the shot before getting it himself. But as a nurse, the 47-year-old Philadelphian felt a professional responsibility to get it as soon as possible. So when he was notified that there was a slot for him, he took it. “I did it against my own beliefs and my own interests of wanting to wait,” Wall said on Jan. 29, a few hours after his first dose. “So I did go in there