During Jeffrey Stern's study abroad program the fall semester of his junior year, he hung out with drug traffickers and addicts in Buenos Aires to produce a harrowing, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the country's cocaine culture for the Buenos Aires Herald.
Back at Duke the following spring, Stern's burgeoning interest in investigative reporting led him to live briefly in a makeshift encampment with three homeless men in the woods near Duke's East Campus. It was for this last encounter, documented in a March 2006 cover story for North Carolina's Independent weekly, that Stern, a senior public policy major, was awarded this year's Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism.
When Stern accepted the award in late October, he thanked DeWitt Wallace Center faculty members Ken Rogerson and Robert Bliwise for their guidance along the way. (Stern took Duke Magazine editor Bliwise's two-part magazine journalism course his sophomore year and Rogerson's policy journalism course last spring.) "Everywhere I turn, there are people throwing all the reasons I shouldn't go into journalism at me," Stern said, "but Bob and Ken have both been pushing me along, not only encouraging me but actively supporting me."
But as any good teacher or editor will tell you, it's up to the writer to make a story come alive. Despite his young age, Stern has proven he has the tenacity and resilience to pursue a career as an investigative reporter. After hearing Independent editor Richard Hart speak to his magazine journalism class, Stern exchanged emails with him pitching various story ideas. One idea the editorial staff had been grappling with was how to report in a fresh way about a new initiative spearheaded by the city of Durham and local United Way agencies to end homelessness in Durham by 2016. (Recent figures compiled by the United Way estimate that more than 2,500 people a year are homeless in Durham -- slightly more than 500 at any given point in time -- and that more than $5 million is spent annually to help address the needs of this population.)
At first Stern wanted to become homeless himself and write about the experience, but Hart steered him in the direction of discovering what life was like for those who don't have access to a warm meal and safe apartment when the going gets rough. While economic instability alone can push individuals and families into homelessness, the majority of North Carolina's homeless population is also dealing with the effects of mental illness and chronic substance abuse.
Hart told Stern about a crudely constructed tent near the train tracks that run alongside East Campus, a short walk from the city's Ninth Street shopping district. Shielded from the elements by a patchwork of plastic held up by branches and twine, and furnished with found objects such as an old bucket and scraps of discarded carpet, Stern discovered three men bound together by misfortune -- Mike, Mark and Concrete -- who had created a mini-community.
"At first I had some concerns about my own personal safety," Stern recalls, "but once I got to know them I felt ashamed about worrying in the first place." As for initial introductions, Stern says he "just walked into the woods and told them what I wanted to do."
Stern spent about a week at various times of the day living in their environment and gradually earning their trust. As dusk fell, Stern would gently steer the conversation as the men smoked scavenged cigarette butts, passed around bottles of malt liquor, and talked. "All three of them had incredible life stories, so in a way I felt as though the story fell into my lap. At the same time, I couldn't simply be a fly on the wall because they were exposing their lives to me. It was kind of like sitting around watching TV with your family except they were sitting around drinking 40s [ounces] of beer. The longer I spent with them the more I could tell they weren't trying to manipulate me."
The resulting article, "Family Man: The Story of Three Men Who Share a Tent by the Tracks Just Off Main Street," painted a compelling portrait of how physical injury, poor decisions, and plain bad luck can lead to devastating downward spirals. All three men had lost families, jobs and social acceptance, and yet Stern says he was struck by their resilience and generosity of spirit.
"I know it's a cliché to say that the people with nothing are the most giving," Stern says. "I can ease my conscience all day by saying that writing about them helps them in some way, but I do feel a debt to the people I interview." After the Independent story ran, Stern learned that Mark, Mike and Concrete had parted ways, and the encampment had been demolished. After a stint in the hospital for an undiagnosed illness, Mike went to rehab and got a job, Mark continues to panhandle around town, and Concrete finds refuge under a nearby magnolia tree.
Independent editor Hart was impressed with Stern's passion and drive throughout the process. "Jeff is a monster, and I mean that in the best sense of word," he says. "Just as Michael Jordan uses every muscle in his body when he is focused on playing basketball, every ounce of Jeff is completely geared to going out and getting the story. He had the gall and the gumption and the willingness to get into the tent with those guys, and on top of that, he has one of the most natural magazine writing styles I've ever seen."
Stern says the response to his article was mostly favorable, although one reader wasn't sure whether the story was meant to be supportive or critical of the men's plight. That same objective even-handedness served Stern well when he took on a subsequent assignment for Duke Magazine, writing a profile of Donna Arduin, a controversial budget-policy advisor and alumna. ("Arduin's charm," wrote Stern, "not only tempers what her critics would characterize as her dearth of fiscal generosity, it also gives her something of an Ann Coulter esteem in Republican circles. She's respected and adored, even though she's made herself the fat-camp counselor of pork-barrel spending--and she knows where the kids hide the candy bars.")
In addition to his other coursework this fall, Stern is conducting an independent study to piece together the mystery surrounding the disappearance of John McCormick, a prominent Chapel Hill attorney who appears to have left town with more than $1 million of his clients' money. "The project is half investigative and half documentary work, says Stern. "The investigative part is really just doing the due diligence, trying to find out exactly what he had gotten himself into, who knew about it, what warning signs were missed. The other part is to relate what he was thinking, what he was seeing, and of course, who he was. So far everyone I've interviewed has been quick to respond that he was a perfectly nice guy, not remarkable in anyway, and that there were no warning signs."
Recreating McCormick's last known whereabouts, Stern has driven the route McCormick took from the back of his law office to where his car was later discovered near an entrance to Duke Forest, "just seeing all the things he saw, and trying to imagine what he may have been thinking."
For Stern, a career as an investigative journalist would be the perfect match for his curiosity about an ever-evolving series of interests. "I've always been really passionate about things, and I've always wanted to be the best at what I do. But then I get bored and want to move on. That's one of the reasons I like journalism -- I get to work really intensely on a story for a period of time and then move on to next story."