We the Voters
Journalism grad travels
In Portland, Maine, Emily Topczewski met a lobsterman in a bar and talked her way into spending a day on his boat. In a small town in Georgia, she convinced a police chief to let her ride along with one of his officers following a Black Lives Matter protest. In Ohio, she mourned with the community after she witnessed an opioid overdose. She recorded it all – the good, the bad, the personal, the political. It’s part of her “We the Voters Project,” an ambitious endeavor to help Americans bridge some bitter political and social divides across the nation. “The idea of We the Voters is that this is an interview project where I’m conducting interviews in small towns and large cities across all 50 states, talking to people on the premise that most people are good, and that if we are willing to listen to each other and listen to each other’s stories, it’s a lot harder to draw those lines and boundaries,” Topczewski explained. Since she began her crosscountry trip one year ago, Topczewski has interviewed hundreds of people in 26 states. Currently, she’s taking a break in Georgia where she’s reviewing her material and riding out the COVID-19 pandemic. Every day, she posts snippets of interviews to social media and YouTube, updates the We the Voters Project website and her blog, and gives glimpses into the lives of ordinary Americans from every walk of life. The origin story Topczewski never wanted to be anything but a journalist.
6 • IN FOCUS • August, 2020
“I used to make these family newspapers on Microsoft Publisher – I have a very large Catholic family – about all of the news happening with my cousins and aunts and uncles, and then I would distribute them at family parties. And I did that for years,” she said with a laugh. Topczewski grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and initially attended college at a smaller school before she transferred to UWM in search of a bigger journalism market. UWM’s Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies Department had everything she was looking for: Talented professors, internship opportunities, and, at the time, a news program called PantherVision which taught students how to create their own media broadcasts. “I picked up skills, from editing to tracking down stories to getting people to talk to me. I learned so much in that class and I still use all of that basically every day that I’m doing this work,” Topczewski said. “PantherVision was far and away the most important collegiate experience I had.” After graduation, Topczewski worked at the local WTMJ radio station before trying her hand at public relations as an intern in the D.C. office of a Wisconsin congressman. Deciding government was not for her, she found a job at PR firm and later transferred to that firm’s Chicago office. But, something was missing. “I kept going back to what I loved about Emily Topczewski celebrates in front of her packed car on the first day of We the Voters in July 2019. Photo courtesy of Emily Topczewski.