Bryn Stole, a Midwesterner by birth, has seen a lot of the world over the past few years, from his hometown of St. Louis to Gambier, Ohio — home of his alma mater, Kenyon College — to Neuss, Germany, and finally Washington, D.C.
Now Bryn (pronounced “Brin”) will get to experience the Delta firsthand as a staff writer for the Commonwealth.
“I’d like to become a journalist. It’s a great opportunity to put in a lot of writing,” said Stole, 24, who began work today.
Stole comes to the Commonwealth from The American Interest, a magazine based in Washington, where he was doing an online daily blog.
Stole graduated from Ken-yon in 2011 with a double major in history and modern languages. He is fluent in German and proficient in Russian.
Later that year, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and given an 11-month teaching position in Neuss, Germany.
“I was teaching English in Germany. ... It was fifth through 13th grades. I had students from 11 to about 21,” Stole said.
While at Kenyon, he was a teaching assistant for the Department of German and got involved with the campus radio station.
“I started off as a broadcaster. When I left, I was the general manager. I managed the staff and did all the paperwork,” he said.
Some of Stole’s duties as general manager included scheduling programs and supervising the station’s staff along with its more than 120 volunteer DJs.
He also was a member of the Kenyon Men’s Rugby Club, serving as its president and team captain.
He is the recipient of the school’s George Gund Award for American Studies.
Stole was a classmate at Kenyon of his Commonwealth predecessor, Jeanie Riess, now a features writer for Gambit, an alternative weekly in New Orleans.
“Jeanie put us on to Bryn, and we’re thankful she did,” said Editor and Publisher Tim Kalich. “He’s a bright young man who, I’m confident, is going to be a fine reporter.”
Stole is the middle son of Tore Stole and Rosemary Kunz of St. Louis.
His father is a financial security analyst, and his mother is a math teacher at a Catholic girl’s school.
Stole said he’s looking forward to getting out and meeting people.
“I’m very excited to do real news reporting and community news reporting. To get to know the people and to tell their stories,” he said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
