Who I Am

Hello! My name is Imani Cruzen and I'm a reporter working at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Before starting at the Pioneer Press in August of 2024, I worked as a teaching assistant in a bilingual primary school in Seville, Spain for two years. In that role, I worked in classrooms teaching English to 1st-6th graders.

Before that, I was the solutions reporter with the St. Cloud Times (a part of the USA Today Network) in St. Cloud, MN. In that role, I covered solutions-focused community work. I continue to be passionate about solutions journalism and hope to continue to bring this experience to my reporting.

Other Experience

I am a 2019 University of Minnesota — Twin Cities graduate with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in history.

In addition to the publications I've written for, I served as a co-host with Minnesota-based television show Disability Viewpoints for 9 years where I interviewed guests on topics related to the disability community.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my friends, family and two cats, learning languages (Spanish and French) and playing guitar.

What is solutions journalism?

The way I describe solutions journalism (and my past role as a solutions journalist) to others is that it covers issues or concerns in a community and the potential solutions community members are pursuing to address them. Some examples of solutions I've covered are a community garden (to bring fresh food to a food desert), a support group, and robotic pets (to provide companionship to the elderly.)

That doesn't mean solutions stories always cover a clear answer to address a concern. Some solutions stories look at an ongoing concern. They can analyze what is working in other communities and examine if it is working in the community that is being covered -- and if not, why? What kind of data, community voices or experts might be able to explain the differences? Why does a potential solution help in one community and not another? Solutions journalism can bring information together to analyze those questions.

Organizations

National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Society of Professional Journalists - University of Minnesota Chapter Secretary (Sept. 2018- May 2019)

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