As Benilde-St. Margaret’s seniors endured their final days of high school before graduation, they prepare to move one step closer to getting jobs and becoming successful. Benilde-St. Margaret’s class of 2008 alum, Alexandra Sifferlin, is an example of this success; she has turned what was once a childhood ambition into an exciting reality.

Sifferlin is now a health reporter for TIME Magazine, and has spent the last few years reporting on an assortment of health related issues. “I love being a health reporter because I like to think I’m doing a service. Health, medicine, and science impact everyone, and I get the most touching emails from readers,” said Sifferlin.

At the age of four, Sifferlin could be seen on a park bench observing her surroundings and taking notes–– she knew that reporting was her calling. “I honestly can’t think of a time when I didn’t want to be a journalist. In my eighth grade yearbook it says my dream job is ‘Magazine Editor’,” Sifferlin said.

After graduating from BSM in 2008, she enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Before settling down at TIME Magazine, she interned at a variety of publications, including Marie Claire and Rolling Stone.

As a health reporter for TIME, Sifferlin has written about everything health related ranging from teenage E-cigarette use, healthy pancakes at IHOP, and even the effects of LSD therapy. As a health reporter, Sifferlin feels like she is helping the community by reporting on health-related issues that may affect them.

Before becoming a professional journalist, Sifferlin was a writer for the Knight Errant and Editor-in-Chief her senior year. She believed that it helped her improve as a journalist, and prepared her for a future of success in an ever-changing industry. “Few school papers were getting this same type of experience, and I went to college with a very progressive vision of what the future of journalism could look like,” said Sifferlin.