BOSTON (MA)
B.U. Bridge

By Brian Fitzgerald

When Sacha Pfeiffer graduated from BU nine years ago, she knew that she had some writing talent, but she didn’t envision any newspaper awards on her horizon. She didn’t even have a degree in journalism.

Still, Pfeiffer (MET’94), who had majored in English and history, wanted to give the field a try. She soon learned that dedication, creativity -- and the ability to meet deadlines -- can take a young journalist a long way. After landing an entry-level job as a general assignment reporter for the Dedham (Mass.) Times, she joined the Boston Globe as a full-time freelancer the following year, and in 1999 became a staff reporter with the newspaper’s Suffolk County Courthouse Bureau.

In November 2000 Pfeiffer joined the Boston Globe Spotlight Team, a move that would eventually bring her a Pulitzer prize for meritorious public service. Pfeiffer is one of four BU alumni who earned journalism’s highest honor on April 7. They are Boston Globe staffers Michael Rezendes (CAS’78) and Stephen Kurkjian (COM’66), along with Pfeiffer, for the Spotlight Team’s series on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, and Lawrence Eagle-Tribune reporter Meredith Warren (COM’01), for breaking news for the newspaper’s coverage of the deaths of four boys who fell through the ice on the Merrimack River last December.