DAY NEWSROOM: REPORTERS

Kimberly Drelich

Groton
k.drelich@theday.com    @KimberlyDrelich
Phone: 860-701-4322

Kimberly Drelich likes seeing first-hand how communities make local decisions.

“Covering small towns, you really get a feel for how communities work,” she said. “There are so many stories to discover and bring to light, and you can report on how larger issues play out at the local level and how they affect people’s lives.”

Drelich grew up in New York City and developed an interest in journalism in high school. She became involved in the school newspaper and wrote for the school’s science magazine and French magazine. She spent one trimester in France in high school and speaks French.

In college, she became involved on a broader level.

“I was always interested in journalism, but it wasn’t until I was in college my sophomore year that I joined the college paper and I just saw how interesting it was to go out into the community and report,” she said.

Drelich earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and spent one summer as an intern at the Norwich Bulletin, which brought her to New London County. After college, she moved back to New York City and took a job at a small literary agency, where she helped authors edit manuscripts, send pitch letters to publishers and develop marketing plans.

 “It was a good opportunity to support authors and get their work published, but I realized I wanted to write myself,” she said.

About three years later, she enrolled in graduate school for journalism at Columbia University, then held a summer internship at The Record in New Jersey as a business reporter.

She started as a reporter for The Day in September, 2012, and has covered East Lyme, Lyme and Old Lyme ever since. She always finds something novel about the towns.

“I don’t think anything in journalism stays the same,” she said. “There’s always something new. I think also when you stay with communities, you get to know them on a deeper level.”