Taylor Hartz, Patch Staff

I am new to Illinois and the Midwest and am looking forward to getting to know a new region. I am a life long East Coast resident - I grew up in Litchfield County, Conn., and attended college in Boston, Mass., where I studied photojournalism and political science at Boston University.

After working for the community weekly newspaper The Observer, in Southington, Conn. for almost two years, I returned to school last August. I earned my master's degree in investigative journalism from American University in Washington, D.C., where I interned with the Investigative Reporting Workshop, the New Republic, and the Washington Post.