06| ALUMNI
LINDA ROBERTSon nothing but the truth Reality can feel like a double-edged sword. Miami Herald staff writer and Miami Palmetto Senior High alumna Linda Robertson has a knack for capturing both the good and the bad in everything she writes. Her path to exposing reality began during her years at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, when she joined the school newspaper, The Panther. Robertson loves writing, and Palmetto’s English program intensified her affinity for the craft with its captivating courses and educated teachers. Robertson used what she learned in class to write articles for The Panther; however, she applied her skills to more than just that. Over the course of her high school career, Robertson acquired extensive experience in sports, as she belonged to the track team at Palmetto and enjoyed playing other sports, as well. This gave Robertson a special advantage and provided her with the ability to write articles on the sports activities at Palmetto with a unique perspective. “The whole collaborative aspect of working on the newspaper with my peers, pushing and encouraging each other, made it clear that this was something that I could excel at,” Robertson said. Robertson’s sports writing continued well into college, as it remained a large passion of hers. She attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and joined the school newspaper, The Daily Tarheel. At the time, UNC had a popular men’s sports program because the men’s basketball team starred Michael Jordan. The women’s leagues, on the other hand, received much less attention. None
of the journalists on the paper vied to write about the women’s teams the way they did the men’s. This gave Robertson the perfect opportunity to take over that section. Following her time at UNC, Robertson immediately received a job offer from the Miami Herald — an amazing opportunity for a recent journalism graduate — and has since remained a loyal staff writer for the publication. When Robertson began her career over 30 years ago, men dominated the sports writing field. This caused the few female sportswriters to establish a connection with one another. Robertson formed an early friendship with Michelle Kaufman, a current Miami Herald American sportswriter, although the two worked for different publications at the time. Since then, they have grown close because of both work-related events and personal experiences, and Kaufman has truly gained an understanding of Robertson inside and out. “Nobody works harder on a story than Linda,” Kaufman said. “She always takes the side of the individual, and I think that’s what she is: a voice. She’s kind of always been a voice for little people… for people who maybe don’t have a way for their story to be told, and she likes to tell it.” For over 30 years, Robertson has covered stories on a local to global scale with the Herald. They range from profiles on the Williams sisters, to 13 consecutive Olympic games, to the Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan debacle. Each of her stories provide a novel perspective on countless topics and people.
