Alumni
Alumni Events and Reunions

Alumni Highlight: Vera Bergengruen '07

RE: What year did you graduate?
VB: 2007
 
RE: What were your extracurricular activities when at RE?
VB: I was mediocre at a lot of sports (swimming, sailing, cross-country and track & field) with an equally mediocre foray into theater and musical theater.
 
RE: Where did you attend college?
VB: Dartmouth College
 
RE: What was your major?
VB: Government with a focus on International Relations
 
RE: Who was your favorite RE teacher and why?
VB: I started 9th grade at RE only three years after moving to the U.S. and learning English. Dr. John King was the first teacher to recognize I might be a good writer and work with me on honing those skills — now I do that for a living, so thank you DK!
 
RE: What is something your teachers would be surprised to learn about you?
VB: That despite my mediocre efforts in high school, I now run half marathons (and am faster than I was back then!)
 
RE: What song did you have on repeat the year you graduated?
VB: I consulted my RE friends—luckily we’re still very close—and we remembered that "DotA" by Basshunter was on repeat at Grad Nite (as well as a lot of Akon, Maroon 5 and Fall Out Boy).
 
RE: What is your favorite part of your job?
VB: I love to be in the middle of the biggest stories happening around the world: documenting conflicts, elections, protests, revolutions in politics and technology. But more than anything it’s a privilege to ask people questions for a living—from world leaders and other powerful figures to the ordinary people living with the consequences of their decisions—and sometimes get to see my investigative reporting lead to lasting changes.
 
RE: What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?
VB: Coffee
 
RE: What book are you currently reading?
VB: I just started “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen (there’s now a show based on the book out as well) and so far am loving it - undercover spies, divided allegiances, geopolitical drama, what more do you need?
 
RE: When did you get interested in journalism?
VB: I remember wanting to become a journalist for National Geographic when I was in elementary school, and while at RE I’d often download BBC interviews to listen to on my iPod mini while walking our dog or working in the Pagoda (my mom says I was an early podcast adopter!). Even so, I took several detours to get here — I didn’t get my first real reporting job until I was 26 — so if any RE students or alums want to chat about entering journalism, I’m always happy to help!
 
RE: Where is the most interesting place you’ve ever visited?
VB: I’ve been lucky to travel to a lot of cool places, both for work and fun, but one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had was traveling to Ukraine last year on a reporting trip. Kyiv is an incredibly beautiful city, and experiencing it in wartime—empty of visitors, with regular air raid sirens, with locals eager to share their perspectives on the war—was unforgettable. And taking a darkened night train across western Ukraine towards the Polish border, with women and children escaping the war, was an experience that will stay with me for a long time.

Follow Vera on her blog, "The Chaos Beat."
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Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.