The spring-2013 edition of IRISH, Notre Dame's alumni magazine, was recently published. One of the articles is about a 2000 Notre Dame Prep grad, Derrick Sobodash, who is an editor for a news publication based in Beijing, China. He says his education at Notre Dame helped make his years at university easier to handle. The complete issue of the spring-2013 IRISH magazine can be found here.
What does a someone with a double major in journalism and Chinese studies do after graduating from college? In Derrick Sobodash's case, he moves to China and works for a major Beijing newspaper, that's what!
Sobodash, who graduated from Notre Dame Prep in 2000, is in his sixth year living in China and is now working at "Beijing Today" as senior copy editor, responsible for making sure the text of the English-language publication follows appropriate formatting, style and accuracy. He says he's not in the field as a reporter too much in his position, but he sees most of what gets published in the weekly paper, which is more like an arts and cultural publication than general news or business paper.
"We don't cover business, for example, because frankly, 'Financial Times' does an exceptional job at that and it's really popular in China. Political news is covered elsewhere, so we focus on local cultural events, music, art gallery openings, interesting new stores, etc."
Sobodash's journalism career began at Oakland University after graduating from NDP. While taking classes there, he worked on the student newspaper, The Oakland Post, and says it was a very interesting time to be on staff at the Post.
"I was there for the big scandal in 2003 where the Post filed a lawsuit against the university's own board of trustees for violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act," he recalls. The paper sued the board after student journalists were not informed about or allowed into a January board meeting in which trustees discussed state budget cuts.
"Unfortunately, the state district court disagreed with us. We thought it was an open-and-shut case, but the court disagreed."
He says all in all, he really liked the journalism program at OU even though while on the news desk he would typically work from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. "Really insane hours, but everyone there was really nice—enjoyed myself—it was a good program."
After OU he did an internship for a couple of months at the Oakland Press, which was during his last semester in college. "I graduated in '05 with a double major in Chinese Studies and journalism. Everyone thought I was crazy for combining those two majors because there's really no overlap at all, which is why it took me five years instead of four to finish up."
So after securing a job teaching at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, Sobodash moved to China in 2005. He worked at the school for a year when he found out the university was going to be audited by the Chinese government.
"Those working in our office who were nationals and had been there awhile had nothing to worry about," he said. But the officials at the university didn't want to risk us foreigners saying anything bad to the auditors, so they fired the entire foreign staff that year."
On a recent visit to his high school alma mater, Derrick Sobodash ’00 (NDP) speaks to students in Joanne Liu’s Mandarin Chinese class.
What also surprised him a bit after moving to Beijing, was the fact that he can go somewhere in town faster on his bicycle than if he drove a car or took public transit.
He rides his bike to work everyday and people really think he's crazy to do such a thing. You might think it's because there are millions of others on bikes and you need to fight for space. But Sobodash says it's because of all the cars on the road. "You've got four million people driving 20 million cars and for the most part driving badly," he said. He rides about nine miles each way. There is a subway line he could take, but there are three changes and countless footsteps along the way, which makes it impractical.
"It takes about 50 minutes on the subway to get to my office, an hour and a half by taxi, and 30 minutes by bike," which he rides rain, snow or shine. "And its free," he adds. "I've never had a car in China. I'd be afraid to!"
He says even though he's had some close calls on the bike with cars and buses ("There are bike lanes, but the buses drive on them!"), he still prefers his two wheels to any other wheels.
When Sobodash first got to China, he had more difficulty with local navigation than with language or cultural issues. "But now I know the area better than my wife, and she grew up here!"
Even though he's been extremely busy with his work, he's had some time to travel in that part of the world, including trips to Shanghai and Mongolia. "And sometimes I'll just get on my bike and go 100 kilometers (about 62 miles), just to see what's going on."
While on a rare trip back to Michigan in December, Sobodash visited his high school alma mater and spent an afternoon speaking to Joanne Liu's Mandarin Chinese class and visiting with some former teachers.
He remembers Gregory Simon and Mark McCaskey, two of the teachers or staff at NDP today who were teaching back when he was in school. "It was a long time ago!"
He says he really enjoyed his law class with Simon. "It was good preparation because I went to OU, and had a really tough media law class that was taught like a graduate class. Mr. Simon's class was good preparation for it. Also, during my senior year I was really into the art program at NDP. I think I took every art course available to seniors. In general, when asked about his experience at Notre Dame, he said after Notre Dame Prep, "my first two years of college weren't really that tough."
Long-term, Sobodash says that his parents [in Michigan] are getting older and he'd like to spend more time with them, but the job market for news people in the states "being what it is currently, I can't imagine getting something here that would allow me the extra time for my wife and I to start a family." But, still, he IS looking!
Ten years from now, he'd like to get more into fiction writing, and he's made some forays into it, but he's been so terribly busy, it's proven real difficult. "However, I do find time time to garden. My wife and I have a pretty good garden going where we live."
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.