Watchdog Writers Group reporter Jamie Lu interviewed Anna Colletto, a former student researcher whose experience with the WWG helped launch her career in journalism. Colletto, BJ ’25, worked with the WWG during her junior and senior year at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Lu: Tell me a bit about your work with your fellow.
Colletto: I worked with the author Caleb Gale for two years on his book, Black Moses, which came out in August of 2025.
It was a tremendous experience. It really pushed me as a reporter to develop new skills and really opened my eyes to a whole world of journalistic writing that I had never had access to and that I hadn’t even really envisioned for myself ever. So it was really incredible.
Lu: Tell me a bit about your current career and how your experience with the Watchdog Writers Group helped you get here.
Colletto: I am the education reporter at the Tulsa Flyer. It’s a brand new local news outlet in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
And I’m not from Oklahoma and I had never been, actually ever, when I applied for the job. But it was Ted Genoways and Caleb Gale, both former fellows of the Watchdog Writers Group, who showed me the job opportunity and encouraged me to apply and really kind of poured into me. And I would not be where I am if they had not encouraged me to put myself out there.
Lu: What was your favorite part of being a part of that Watchdog Writers Group community?
Colletto: One, it was learning from and growing from Caleb, just seeing the way he approaches his reporting and how intelligent he is and the way he thinks about writing was really formative for me. And then also the semesterly gatherings. It was incredibly meaningful to sit around writers that I just so admired and hear them talk about their work or talk about journalism or talk about how they approach their stories over a meal. And they just really poured into all of us and really took an eager interest in us and really wanted to encourage us to be the best sort of journalist that we could be.
Lu: Why would you recommend students get involved with the Watchdog Writers Group?
Colletto: I think it’s really one of the most unique opportunities at the University of Missouri. I think the opportunity to learn from writers who are just unbelievably skilled and also unbelievably ambitious and to get to work alongside them is an opportunity that no one should take for granted.
I also think that the ability to see what it’s like to write a book or the stages and processes that go into that is not something many people get access to, especially in the undergraduate or graduate level with such close proximity to the author. And I think that is a really remarkable opportunity.
I would also just say that the support doesn’t end after you graduate or after your fellow leaves the program. I think that they purposely select authors who really care about the mentorship part of it too, and the community doesn’t really end after you finish the job, which is wonderful.
This Q&A was condensed for publication.
