Finding His Path at Conn

Originally from Atlanta, Wright discovered his passion for reporting as a child while living in Abu Dhabi and watching international news broadcasts. But when choosing a college, he deliberately steered away from traditional journalism schools.

“I didn’t want my whole scholastic experience to be centered on my vocation—I wanted to get an education that could be supplementary to my career,” he explains. “And I wanted to see a part of the country I hadn’t been to before. Conn was the perfect fit.”

During his first year, Wright enrolled in “Capitalism and Slavery,” an advanced economics course taught by Associate Professor of Economics Mark Stelzner. The course sparked a new intellectual direction, leading Wright to design his own interdisciplinary political economy major and join the Media, Rhetoric and Communication Pathway.

“I got to tie together economics, history and government, and it really shaped why I love learning,” Wright says.

Hands-On Experience and Career Prep

Wright leveraged Conn’s experiential learning resources to build an impressive portfolio long before graduation:

• Summer Civic Leaders Program: Through the Holleran Center for Community Action, he spent the summer after his first year researching housing and urban renewal records in New London City Hall archives.
• Local Reporting and Public Service: He turned that research foundation into reporting roles with The Day in New London and an internship in the congressional office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney.
• Hale Center for Career Development Support: With funding from the Hale Center, Wright completed a Dow Jones News Fund internship covering housing and Black-owned businesses for the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
• National Internships: He subsequently earned a 2024 Dow Jones News Fund economics reporting internship at The Wall Street Journal in New York and completed a national reporting internship at The Washington Post.

Taking the Pulse of the Country

In September 2025, Wright joined The Wall Street Journal full time as a news associate. As an on-the-ground political reporter, he travels across the country—from rural farming communities in Darke County, Ohio, to historic Black churches in Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama—digging deep into voter motivations, cultural identities, and community resilience. He also produces dynamic video reporting to bring nuanced political analysis to younger digital audiences.

Now covering key congressional midterms and looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race, Wright continues to pursue stories that challenge conventional wisdom.

“This is so much more than my vocation; it’s my calling,” says Wright. “Every day I want that feeling of: ‘We need to talk to the people, figure out the data, figure out the information, and deliver it in a way that readers actually want to engage with it.’ Chasing that and getting it is the best feeling ever.”