Classmate Profile: Arden Lieb

Arden Lieb’s mother was raised in Connecticut and her father was raised in Long Island but both these people raised her in Northern New Jersey along with her three older siblings and two dogs: Bart and Alfie.

When it was time to leave the nest for college in the fall of 2018, she chose New York University (NYU) as her first choice but wasn’t accepted so she went to the University of Vermont on a scholarship. However, the second time was the charm for Lieb because when she applied again in the spring, she got in and she transferred to NYU. Now, three years later, Lieb is graduating in May with a degree in Cinema Studies and Journalism.

“I really, really love the creative writing aspect of journalistic writing,” Lieb said. “Like my mother was before she passed in 2019; she was a writer.”

To this end, Lieb has chosen an interesting reporting beat this semester: the children of New York.

“For my first story, I want to focus on like educators or caretakers: people who spend the day with kids,” she said. “I also want to write about kids’ experiences growing up in a global pandemic.”

“I don’t think I will be going into journalism anytime soon in my career,” Lieb said. “I find the work way too hard for me.”

In addition to this, she is skeptical of the journalism industry in this digital age.

“Now because of the Internet, everyone is just pumping out content and it seems like there’s so much content that’s just shit,” she said. “Everyone just has to keep writing to create more content for advertisers.”

Instead, Lieb is looking to launch a career in public relations and communications. Also, after graduation, she would love to stay in New York if she can afford it but she has no plans to marry any time soon. She has hopes that in eight years, when she is 30, she would have a beautiful place with a dog or two and possibly a few cats, spending her free time knitting and playing the Sims on her couch.

“I don’t think I want kids or to be married by 30 I don’t care about that,” she said “I’m just going to get married whenever because I don’t like to think of my life in deadlines.

Some time down the line, she would also love to live in Paris since her plan to study abroad there was quashed by the onset of the pandemic.

“I also have this a weird inkling that I would want to live on a farm in the middle of nowhere for like a year,” she said. “But I probably won’t do that.”