May 12, 2025
Contact: Cary Littlejohn, carylittlejohn@missouri.edu
Photo by Egan Ward
Egan Ward wants to be a reporter. But not just any reporter.
“I want to be one of the best,” he said. “I want a seat at the table.”
Spend a few minutes with Ward and you’d likely bet he’ll get that seat. His accomplishments while at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he mastered the fundamentals, are merely a prelude to what he has planned for his future as a professional journalist.
Upon graduation this weekend, he’ll leave Mizzou with more than just a diploma, a handful of awards, a bevy of bylines and a sterling resume. He’ll take away a personal style of writing and a reporter’s instinct.
“I’m sure some editors would hate it, but I love a good short, one-sentence lede,” Ward said. “Like, get me in there. It’s just like dangling something in front of you, and you just want to grab it; you have to keep reading to unravel the ball of yarn.”
Inspired by the authors of the sorts of books he hopes to write someday, Ward wants to be the kind of journalist who goes deep — uncovering stories that take time, patience and persistence.
For now, he’s finishing up a decorated collegiate reporting career that already rivals those of seasoned professionals.
“I can't imagine that there are many students out there who are doing local, regional, national and international reporting at the same time,” Ward said.
Unmatched opportunities
Ward’s not oblivious to some of the jaw-dropping, eye-popping experiences on his resume.
“I mean, sometimes I have to pinch myself and just be like, ‘What is my life?’” he said.
Among the highlights were opportunities made possible through the journalism school’s Global Programs office, including studying in Washington, D.C., where he was able to hear Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, of The Washington Post and Watergate fame, speak. He also studied in China, where he reported on the Beijing Open, a professional tennis tournament during which he watched some of the world’s best-ranked tennis players.
“I remember sitting there by myself and thinking ‘Imagine if I didn’t go to Mizzou,’” Ward said. “I would have never been able to do that. I probably never would have been to China at all.”
Ward is currently working on three different projects that allow him to work closely with talented professional journalists on important stories.
He conducts research for Alec MacGillis, a senior writer at ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom, and a fellow with the Watchdog Writers Group — a nonprofit journalism fellowship program and teaching lab based at the Missouri School of Journalism. MacGillis is working on an investigative memoir about the industrial legacy of General Electric in his hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Through the writers’ group, Ward also linked up with New York Times reporter Eric Lipton in a similar research capacity. Lipton has won three Pulitzer Prizes and is currently working on a book about billionaires and their relationships to the current presidential administration.
In addition, Ward is contributing data reporting and research on international fraud and corruption for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project under the tutelage of Kevin Hall, another multiple Pulitzer winner.
“I have the benefit of building relationships with these authors where I’m able to essentially tap into their processes and ask them ‘How did you do this?’” Ward said.
Solid foundation
Ward has earned plenty of acclaim for his work. He was named a 2024 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar, and in 2023, he was named the Missouri College Media Association’s Journalist of the Year.
But when he talks about some of the most meaningful moments during his time at Mizzou, he doesn’t turn to the awards or flashy experiences.
Instead, he celebrates where he got his start in journalism: The Maneater, Mizzou’s student newspaper.
He served as an editor on the staff, and while leading the largest section at the paper, he oversaw the creation of a digital magazine from scratch.
“It was a collaborative thing, but I got such a drive from being a leader to my peers in a way,” Ward said. “I know that they're only like a year or so younger than me, but people were constantly peppering me with questions, and I like to think they appreciated the fact that I took it seriously and that I reached out and talked to all of them.”
He knows that if he’d stopped there, he would have accomplished a lot. But he didn’t have to stop there.
“‘You guys don’t know how good we got it,’” Ward recalls telling fellow Mizzou students after visiting with students from universities across the country.
“The Maneater, for a lot of other schools, is where it starts and stops,” he said. “For us, it’s the very beginning. Then we have this whole infrastructure built through curriculum where you’re at an NPR affiliate, an NBC affiliate or a local newsroom that serves a lot of the state. Even if you don’t take every opportunity, because you really can’t, what Mizzou offers us is so unique.”
