The Seeley Swan Pathfinder has a new editor transitioning into the newspaper this winter.
Asa Thomas Metcalfe, a recent graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism, grew up in Proctor, Vt. - a town that is about the same size as Seeley Lake. Metcalfe said that while this gives him an understanding of rural communities, he appreciates that small-town life in Montana has a different feel than the population of 1,600 he grew up in, in Vermont.
“My town is similar,” he explained. “There were 22 students in my graduating class.” Though Metcalfe described his experience in Montana’s smaller towns, as having more connectivity than his New England hometown, with everyday stories about varied life experiences, closer at hand. As a community reporter with fresh eyes in a new environment, that tight-knit community feel is an asset. “I like helping people be connected,” he said.
Metcalfe studied English literature at the University of Maine and spent much of his 20s writing fiction and traveling around the U.S. working in national parks and ski resorts, with seasonal stints in Peru, where he picked up conversational Spanish.
His travels also gave him his first taste of Montana, while working in Yellowstone National Park - but he’d embark on a few more adventures before returning to go to journalism school in Missoula. This included a month-long backpacking trip around Iceland in 2016, where he ended up volunteering at a German film festival being held in a gas station, in exchange for accommodation at the local schoolhouse.
Metcalfe has spent the last year covering sports and the arts for the Montana Kaimin and is looking forward to more adventures in writing as he reports for the Pathfinder.
“I think the purpose of journalism is to help to tell the the stories of those without the ability to tell their own.”
To contact Metcalfe with a story idea, email pathfinder@seeleylake.com
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