Matt Mireles is a junior at Columbia University and an award-winning student journalist. He pays for school by working as a Paramedic in the South Bronx.

Matt grew up in the suburban wastelands of Los Angeles and attended an all-boys Catholic prep school in Orange County. After high school, he attended UC Berkeley for two-years then dropped out to pursue Hemingway-esque fantasies of rugged individualism. He spent several summers fighting fire for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and California and then later worked on an ambulance in the ghettos of southeast Los Angeles.

The plan was to write a book about being an EMT in South Central LA. It fell apart. Thus, he enrolled in a paramedic training program at a local community college. Quickly, he realized that his ambitions outsized being a paramedic and he applied to Columbia University in New York City. He was accepted for the Spring 2005 semester. 

Matt faced what would become a recurring problem: he was in debt and he needed $$$. Salvation came in the form of a job offer with the Modoc Interagency Hotshot Crew, an elite fire fighting team that travels throughout the American West to fight major wildfires. There Matt learned that he was a pansy boy from the big city. This toughened him up and changed the way he thinks about himself and the world.

Between fires that summer, Matt read a stack of Atlantic Monthly back-issues stolen from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and started thinking more deeply about becoming a professional journalist. After moving to New York, he decided to become a war correspondent for the New York Times Magazine. (This is currently a work in progress.)

At Columbia, Matt is focusing his academic study on international security policy. 

Matt pays his way through Columbia by working as Paramedic and cajoling scholarship committees into giving him money. He has written for The Columbia Daily Spectator, FlatlineNYC.com (his award-nominated paramedic blog), and The New York Post. He has also done freelance photo work for the New York Times. He is currently a contributing writer and photographer for Current Magazine/Newsweek.com.

He expects to graduate in May 2008 with Magna Cum Laude honors and a BA in Political Science.Awards.htmlhttp://www.FlatlineNYC.comshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1
Matt Mireles
Student      ⋅     Journalist     ⋅     Paramedic
Location: New York City
Age: 27
School: Columbia University
Major: International Relations
Graduation: May 2008
 
Serious Projects
 
February 2006\
 
Spoofs
 
December 2004
 
Also See Me At:
 
Matt Mireles
Inspired Journalism. Multiple Media.
_________________________________________________________________________

Intro        Bio        Awards        Resumé        Writing        Photo        Multimedia        ContactIntro.htmlAwards.htmlEC1A602E-F4E8-47B6-9249-AB7C32051CAB.htmlWriting.htmlPhoto.htmlMultimedia.htmlContact.htmlshapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1shapeimage_5_link_2shapeimage_5_link_3shapeimage_5_link_4shapeimage_5_link_5shapeimage_5_link_6shapeimage_5_link_7
Website Design by 
Matt Mireles