Kaitlin Lyle, former intern, joins The Millerton News team

MILLERTON — There’s a fresh face at The Millerton News, ready to report on the news of the day. Kaitlin Lyle, 22, of Sharon, Conn., began at the newspaper on Monday, Jan. 16.

Born in Great Barrington, Mass., and raised in Sharon, Lyle graduated from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in 2012. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from Central Connecticut State University, and will officially receive her diploma this May.

Lyle interned at The Lakeville Journal, the News’ parent paper, in the summer of 2015. She said she learned a lot while there and was set on a course of journalism soon after.

“I didn’t go to school initially to become a reporter,” Lyle said. “I originally wanted to become a high school teacher. When I was a freshman in high school, I was annoyed that my classmates didn’t take the same interest in books, and I wanted to inspire a passion for reading. But I didn’t have any teaching experience.”

Then, in the fall of her junior year at Central Connecticut, Lyle decided to join the student newspaper, The Recorder.

“It took me two weeks to volunteer to write a story, and my first two were opinion pieces about book censorship and a review of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley.’ ”

She was hooked.

Lyle’s college newspaper editor encouraged her to seek out news stories.

“What I like most about writing news articles is the sense of confidence it gives me and being able to speak to people one-on-one,” she said. “I’ve never been very good at public speaking, so sitting down and talking to people one-on-one, listening to their stories and perspectives,  there’s confidentiality and trust, and I feel confident speaking to people and leveling with them.”

The rapport is mutual. Already a couple of weeks into her job, Lyle is establishing a network of contacts and fine tuning her interviewing skills.

“I definitely want to work on my communication skills,” she said. “I’d only done one phone interview prior to my job here, so I would like to work on that and on articulating myself better. Also, I would like to build familiarity between myself and the people of this community. Working at The Lakeville Journal was easy because I grew up there. Coming here is starting over, and becoming familiar with an entirely different community. I’ve only seen part of this community before when I worked at The Moviehouse one year when I was a senior in high school.”

Some parts of her new job that Lyle especially likes include driving around the area, and becoming familiar with her new surroundings. Armed with a new license since last July, she said, “It’s nice to see new territory, even if I have to do a couple of test runs first.”

But it’s the interaction with the public that Lyle likes most. She said she was taken by surprise by the fact that people will actually approach her, to discuss the latest news or to offer story ideas.

“It caught me off guard on a couple of occasions,” she said. “But I encourage it, if anything.”

Lyle said she doesn’t expect to tire of the pleasure she gets from speaking with the public, or of seeing her words published in print.

“The best way to put it is the first time I ever saw my name in a byline, it was the censorship issue with The Recorder,” she said. “I jumped up and down, and said ‘My story is in there!’ There were a couple of errors that weren’t mine, but my stories were in there.”

Lyle expects to experience that same joy every time she’s published, though sans errors.

To contact Lyle with story ideas, or just to say hello, send an email to kaitlinl@millertonnews.com.