Alumnus Will Fritz on securing his dream career

When Will Fritz (’19) was at SDSU, he was known as a passionate and driven student journalist. At the Daily Aztec, he stood out as an accomplished senior staff writer, writing 190 stories in three years and eventually taking charge as editor-in-chief. Today, he continues his legacy as a hard-hitting journalist at The American Independent in New York, working as an extremism and LGBTQ+  reporter and doing what he does best: writing public records requests and holding people in power accountable.

“There were a lot of stories involving public records requests, and those were the ones I found the most fun,” Fritz said of his time at the DA. “There were some fun fraternity stories I got to do that they did not like me for.”

Fritz never shied away from writing breaking news stories such as “Sigma Nu fraternity ousted from campus by national chapter,” which helped establish his reputation as a prolific writer at the DA. As editor-in-chief, he also credits the DA for giving him leadership skills he still uses today.

“I was managing a lot of people, which now in my day-to-day career I’ve realized not everyone has that experience,” Fritz said. 

Fritz graduated just before COVID-19 and had already secured a job at City News Service. Once the pandemic began, he returned to his hometown community paper in Temecula, where he dove into COVID coverage, writing nonstop news articles about the historic months that followed March 2020.

Although working in New York had always been a goal, Fritz said an epiphany during the 2020 “Stop the Steal” protests in Arizona gave him the push he needed.

“I'm working for a small paper and I had this kind of inferiority complex,” Fritz said, comparing himself to other reporters. “And then while I'm there (at the protest), I'm like, I'm just as good as these people. I'm seeing how they're doing their reporting, and I'm doing my reporting just as good as them. And so why shouldn't I aim higher?”

Recognizing his capabilities and worth as a professional journalist led him to pursue his dream of covering politics in New York City. He continues to aim high in his reporting.

“There have been a few times I could have given up and gotten out of journalism and I don’t want to make it sound like it was easy, but after I got laid off from my legal news job I was freelancing at different places, and I eventually had to settle for a community newspaper job when I knew I was qualified for better,” Fritz said. “But I just didn't give up and I kept applying for things.”

When asked what advice he has for current JMS students, he said to never settle for anything less than your worth.

“I just hope I'm making a difference,” Fritz said. “We live in this really hyperpolarized information environment where it's really hard for people to even tell what the truth is sometimes. This is an actual threat to democracy, and particularly as a gay person too, that's also a threat for the gay community and also for a lot of different marginalized people. I feel like this is a way I'm able to fight back in some way, at least.”