By the time senior Niamh Ordner arrived at Rice University, she knew she liked biology — but she also knew she liked just about everything else.
“I came into Rice with too many interests,” she said. “It felt like every other week I was hailing a new topic as my favorite thing in the universe, and late at night I’d be going down deep rabbit holes because I came across one sentence in a textbook, and I wanted to learn more.”
That wide-eyed curiosity coupled with a love of storytelling led her down a surprising but ultimately perfect path: science journalism. Now a rising senior majoring in integrative biology, Ordner is spending her summer as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow at the Los Angeles Times, where she’s writing science stories that aim to make complex topics accessible, relevant and exciting.
“I love both science and writing, and I get really invested in certain subjects,” Ordner said. “It works well for me, because as a writer, I can really dive into different topics and then switch to another one for a new story.”
The AAAS Mass Media Fellowship is a highly competitive program that places science-minded students and professionals in newsrooms across the country. Ordner first learned about it during a late-night conversation with her sister about potential postgraduate plans.
“This was my Hail Mary,” she said. “I had minimal experience at the time, but I knew in my heart this was something I wanted to do. So over winter break while my family went to see Christmas lights, I stayed behind to finish my application.”
Ordner was in class when she got the call from AAAS.
“I missed the call because me being me, I turned off my phone as soon as it started ringing in class,” Ordner said. “But when I called back and they said they had a spot for me at the LA Times, I was absolutely floored. I had to go straight to a lab meeting afterward, and I walked in and just blurted out, ‘Guys, I think I got this!’”
At the LA Times, Ordner’s day-to-day duties include pitching stories, interviewing researchers, cold-calling media relations teams and navigating the city’s infamous traffic.
“Everyone has been so helpful,” she said. “I’m doing things my shy, younger self would have never imagined — DMing sources on Instagram, showing up at field sites, calling strangers out of the blue. I’ve developed so many skills that I never in a million years thought I’d have.”
In just a few weeks, she’s written stories on topics ranging from plastic bag bans and synthetic dyes in food to biomedical research funding and cyborg jellyfish. Her reporting has taken her on ocean research vessels, and she was recently interviewed on ‘LA Times Today’ about her jellyfish piece, an experience she described as both thrilling and surreal.
“I was totally calm until I stepped onto the set,” she said. “Then I froze a little. But the team was so supportive, and it ended up being a really fun experience.”
She even got to exchange emails with science fiction author Andy Weir — an especially meaningful moment for a self-proclaimed “huge sci-fi nerd.”
Ordner’s journey into science communication began well before her summer internship. At Rice, she worked as a science writing intern under Lauren Kapcha, assistant dean for communications and student programs, where she wrote for the Wiess School of Natural Sciences’ newsletter. She also served as a writer and editor for Catalyst, the university’s undergraduate research journal, and later took a science communication course taught by Kapcha and Scott Solomon, teaching professor of biosciences, which brought in speakers from across the science media world.
“Hearing about all of their individual paths into the world of science communications allowed me to see all the different avenues in which you could take this. … What they’re all doing is so fascinating,” Ordner said. “Every time I thought about how I would feel to be in their shoes, I could feel little bubbles of happiness start to form in my chest. Something clicked for me in that class.”
Ordner credits biosciences faculty and mentors like Kapcha for encouraging her leap into journalism, which she hopes to work in full-time for at least a few years after graduation.
“Based on this summer, I think I might really love this,” she said.
Long term, though, she said she’s keeping her options open for graduate school, planning to perhaps earn a doctorate in molecular biology, and sees herself eventually working in bioethics or science policy, where she can help shape laws informed by the latest research.
In the meantime, she encourages incoming freshmen who are uncertain of where their studies might take them to keep an open mind.
“I came into college thinking biology meant med school,” Ordner said. “I didn’t even consider other options. But I’ve always loved writing. I’ve always loved learning about science — I just didn’t connect the dots until later. Follow your passions. Fall down rabbit holes. That’s what college is for.”