Love of Writing Led Alum to Financial Reporting Career

Alum Francesca Fontana ’17 of The Wall Street Journal returned to Eugene to deliver the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium keynote.

portrait of Francesca Fontana
SOJC alum Francesca Fontana ’17 landed a job at The Wall Street Journal, where she works as a financial reporter and podcast host. Photo courtesy of Francesca Fontana.

by Lily Reese, Class of ’27

Francesca Fontana ’17 didn’t grow up envisioning herself as a national financial reporter. As a first-generation college student, she knew only that she wanted to write and that she’d need to find a realistic way to make that work.

”Journalism seemed like the avenue to do that,“ she said.

At the University of Oregon, Fontana found direction in the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), where the practical training and storytelling framework helped her begin to see journalism not only as a calling but as a viable career.

”I didn’t know what the jobs were. I didn’t know what was possible,“ Fontana said. ”The SOJC gave me the tools to figure that out.“

Support from both the SOJC and the Clark Honors College (CHC) played a key role in Fontana’s development as a reporter and researcher. She was awarded a 2017 Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellowship (HURF) through the university’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), which helped fund her honors thesis, an investigative memoir that blended personal narrative with investigative reporting.

“I was asking a big question at the heart of my thesis: How can I write something that's true but also deeply personal?” she recalled. “The definition of journalistic truth is about historical fact and objectivity, but to write about my own experience is inherently subjective. How do you fit a circle into a square hole? But it can be done. It has to serve the story and not just be a personal essay. I had to really listen to myself about what I was bringing into the story, and if it was necessary.”

Francesca Fontana stands next to a large banner that says "Undergraduate Symposium; Celebrating Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, Creativity"
Francesca Fontana ’17 presented her SOJC Honors and Clark Honors College thesis—“Seeking Truth through Investigative Memoir”— at the 2017 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Her thesis work led to a viral article for the Wall Street Journal and her upcoming memoir. Photo courtesy of Francesca Fontana.

Her thesis wasn’t only an academic project. It became a launchpad for more ambitious writing, teaching her how to navigate court records, public documents and the often blurry lines between memory and reporting. Presenting her work at the 2017 Undergraduate Research Symposium was both nerve-wracking and affirming.

“It made me feel like a real journalist,” Fontana said.

Her CHC thesis not only led to a degree, but it also provided Fontana the framework to finish her memoir, “The Family Snitch,” set to publish February 6, 2026.

Snowden internship led to newspaper job

Among the faculty who shaped her path, Fontana points to Brent Walth, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and SOJC associate professor, as one of her most influential mentors.

“Brent was the one who convinced me to apply for internships. He gave me the confidence to go for it,” she says. “When you’re first-gen, no one’s telling you how to do this stuff. Brent did.”

Under his mentorship, Fontana applied to the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism and spent the summer of 2015 reporting for The Register-Guard in Eugene. She returned to the paper for multiple internships and was hired as a staff reporter during her senior year, balancing full-time classes with daily deadlines.

Francesca Fontana interviews a person who is facing away from a camera. They are outdoors in Oregon, with sheep in a pasture behind them.
Francesca Fontana ’17 conducts an interview while on assignment for The Register-Guard as a Snowden intern in 2015. SOJC archive photo.

“Brent helped me see the value in myself as a reporter,” Fontana said. “He taught me to see myself as a reporter, not just as an intern. That confidence made all the difference.”

College experience earned her a Wall Street Journal internship

Fontana’s early reporting experiences at the Daily Emerald, OR Magazine and Flux taught her how to write for different audiences and platforms. But it was her passion for investigative depth that led her to apply for the F. James Pensiero Summer Reporting Internship — a competitive position that gives journalism students who attend state universities the chance to work at The Wall Street Journal.

“It was a long shot,” she said. “But I thought this might be one of my only chances to get a foot in the door at a national outlet.”

She got the internship, and then a job offer. Now based in New York, Fontana is a stocks reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and she recently launched a weekly podcast, “What’s News in Markets,” which translates complex financial news into accessible, seven-minute episodes.

Even while covering markets and personal finance, Fontana hasn’t lost the storytelling instincts that guided her through SOJC.

Financial reporting became her beat

Francesca Fontana stands at a lectern in front of a large welcome screen at the 2025 UO Undergraduate Research Symposium keynote address
Francesca Fontana ’17, a financial reporter for The Wall Street Journal, returned to the SOJC in May. In her Undergraduate Research Symposium keynote, she told students that their stories matter. Photo by Hunter Pilarski. 

“I want people to learn something new,” Fontana said. “I want to help people understand these complex topics. And if I can bring my personality into that, I will. AI can’t make bad jokes; I make horrible jokes all the time in my podcast, and that’s part of what makes it mine.”

For current students wondering how to break into the industry, or how to navigate the post-grad unknown, Fontana offers simple but powerful advice: “Don’t make the same mistake twice. If someone gives you feedback, take it in. Grow fast. And always bring your curiosity.”

Fontana also reminds students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, to claim space confidently. “You might feel like an outsider, but the work you do matters. Your story matters. Just don’t work for free if you can help it.”

Seven years after leaving Eugene, Fontana returned to campus in May to deliver the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium keynote.

She showed up not just as a successful alum, but as a model of what’s possible for students who are driven, resourceful and supported.

Lily Reese is a second-year journalism major at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, with a minor in food studies. She is passionate about storytelling, sustainability and lifelong learning. Lily loves to write, and her work can be found in Ethos magazine and Align magazine.