Jennifer Kim, Patch Staff

Born in Philadelphia and bred in Broomall, Jennifer has spent the first half of her life right here in Marple Township. A product of the public school system of Marple Newtown, Jennifer is an alumni of Worrall Elementary School, Paxon Hollow Middle School and making her final pit stop in the district at Marple Newtown High School.

Jennifer went on to graduate magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, with a degree in communications and a concentration in journalism with a minor in Cultural Anthropology (she was only three credits away from picking it up as a minor and decided it couldn't hurt). During her undergrad years, she worked as a world perspectives columnist for the school's paper, The Daily Collegian, while she studied abroad in Australia.

She traveled to Sicily with her travel journalism class, and wrote an article on her experiences, which was featured on GoNomad.com. While interning at GoNomad.com, Jennifer was invited by the Italian Tourism Bureau as the youngest journalist to attend the 2006 Italy Symposium. She wrote a destination guide to Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, which was featured in Preview Massachusetts magazine of the Hartford Courant in Hartford, CT.

Some of Jennifer's recent stints include reporting and writing for The Jersey Journal in Jersey City, NJ, and its community papers, including The Secaucus Weekly and The Waterfront Weekly covering the towns of Secaucus and Hoboken in New Jersey. Before coming on board at Patch, Jennifer also reported for the Northern Valley Suburbanite, a community newspaper focusing on towns in Bergen County, NJ.

A bird and phanatic at heart, the City of Brotherly Love (and Patch!) was calling Jennifer back and found herself back to her old stomping grounds where it all began.

<strong>Beliefs</strong>

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts as objectively as possible and otherwise adhere to the principles of good journalism. However, we also acknowledge that true impartiality is impossible because human beings have beliefs. So in the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable. This disclosure is not a license for you to inject your beliefs into stories or to dictate coverage according to them. In fact, the intent is the opposite: we hope that the knowledge that your beliefs are on the record will cause you to be ever mindful to write, report and edit in a fair, balanced way. And if you ever see evidence that we failed in this mission, please let us know.<br><br><strong>Politics: How would you describe your political beliefs?</strong>

I like to vote for the person, not the party. I&#39;m a registered independent.<br><br><strong>Religion: How religious would you consider yourself?</strong>

Presbyterian Christian.

<strong>Local Hot-Button Issues: What do you think are the most important issues facing the community? Where do you stand on each of these issues?</strong>

The local issues in both Marple and Newtown townships are very near and dear to me. With roots to both towns, I&#39;m interested in what these issues are from land developments to school renovations and what residents, like you, have to say about them.