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The latest issue of The Lance, the student newspaper Malagold worked on at Madison La Follette High School.

Details on UWEC's study abroad program in Uruguay, from the campus Center for International Education Web site. 

For one intrepid student reporter, the story's in the can

Listen to an audio version of this story.

In this age when much of the audience is migrating to the Internet, the careers of many inflexible newspaper and broadcast journalists are ending up in the toilet, but that’s pretty much where Gina Malagold started her journalism career.

Malagold, 18, got her first big story for the student newspaper at Madison La Follette High School by lurking in the girls bathrooms and timing how long students washed their hands – if at all; only 31 percent did. Suffice to say, Malagold’s story touched off a lot of hand-wringing among teachers, administrators and parents.

Like a Bob Woodward skulking around parking garages to meet with his Watergate source, “Deep Throat,” Malagold wasn’t embarrassed to pursue a good story by loitering in the latrine between classes, she said this week.

“No one knew what I was doing except my friends, because they know I don’t go in the bathroom and hang out between breaks,” she said. “Ten minutes is a long time in the bathroom.”

Malagold started writing for “The Lance” as a sophomore, a year earlier than most students at La Follette. She started out writing “fluff” features, she said, but soon graduated to satire, a profile of the new principal, breaking news on a bomb threat and her bathroom, ah, exposé. Broadcast journalism might have more glitz, she said, but reporting for print is more “personal.”

Apparently.

Now, Malagold is poised to start studying journalism. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has admitted her for this fall, and she has declared a major in journalism. UW-La Crosse and UW-Madison also accepted her, but she chose UW-Eau Claire in order to assert a little independence.

“I think it would be nice to get away from home for at least a year,” she said. “If I was to go to UW-Madison, my mom would be more likely to show up, bring me food. … My mom’s a pretty clingy mom.”

Her mother, Jeanne, was born in Milwaukee of Norwegian heritage and moved as a teenager to Madison. That’s where she met Malagold’s father, Sergio, the world traveler. Born and raised in Italy, he joined the Israeli army; emigrated to Uruguay, his mother’s homeland; and moved to the United States 18 years ago to study at UW-Madison.

He speaks six languages: Italian, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese and English. His love of languages and traveling rubbed off on his daughter. Gina Malagold learned Spanish from him and his mother, when she visited from Uruguay – along with seven years of classes in Madison schools.

She has traveled to Uruguay and Argentina, as well as Italy and Switzerland, she said, adding that she has already registered to study in Uruguay for fall semester 2008.

At La Follette, Malagold edited a Spanish-language section of the student newspaper, and she looks forward to the day that her bilingualism will help make her a better professional journalist.

“I love Spanish,” Malagold said. “It’s my passion.”

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