Maine Perspective Front Page
Graduate Student Takes Her Science Skills to Business Week
S For 10 weeks last summer, Nellie Andreeva, a master's degree candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, traded her desk in Bennett Hall for an office in mid-Manhattan. Under a fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), Andreeva wrote science news stories for Business Week magazine.
Her stories featured headlines such as "At last, a car that cleans itself," "How to preserve the zip in zapped food," and "El Niño's Nasty Sister." The latter story ran in the July 13 issue and discussed potential damages from a strong fall hurricane season associated with La Niña, the flip side to El Niño.
"The scientists I talked to were very cooperative and helpful," she says. "I focused on stories of interest to the business community, of course. Once I learned the magazine's style, my stories were published with only a few editorial changes. I liked the work very much."
A native of Bulgaria, Andreeva came to UMaine in early 1997. She has master of science degrees in journalism and physics from Sophia University, and she is working on a project to use concepts from popular movies in physics education courses. In Bulgaria, she directed independent television programs and won Bulgaria's most prestigious honor for a director, the equivalent of an Emmy Award in the U.S.
Her experience at Business Week taught her how magazine writers and editors select stories for publication. She scanned Web sites and news releases to get story ideas, and then submitted suggestions to her editor.
With help from her advisor, Susan McKay, now department chair, Andreeva submitted her initial application to the American Physical Society last January. She almost decided not to apply after Ice Storm '98 left her without access to a computer.
"After classes resumed, a day before the deadline, Dr. McKay did everything to change my mind," she says. "She helped me send all the documents with an official note from the department explaining why they were late. As we can see, it worked."
Andreeva grew up in Iambol, Bulgaria, a small river town in a farming region. Her mother taught math at an elementary school, and her father, who died in 1995, was a miner.
"My mother was really excited to see my by-line, which was 'By Nellie Andreeva in New York.'"
The Business Week offices are located in Rockefeller Center, a location which gave Andreeva an extra perk - a front-row seat on live performances by Gloria Estefan, Chicago and others on NBC's Today Show.