Portraits of Success

Edward Wong 2005

The journey that has taken Edward Wong to the embattled streets of Iraq, where he covers the war for The New York Times, began at T.C. Williams, where he first became enamored with great works of literature and the art of writing. He says he owes much to the teachers who opened the door to this world.

Edward graduated from T.C. Williams in 1990 and, with the help of scholarships, attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a degree in English literature with a minor in biology. In the next two years, he traveled through Europe and the Middle East and briefly studied Mandarin in Beijing.

In 1996, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. While finishing dual Master's degrees in journalism and international studies, Edward reported for news organizations , including The Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.  During the summer of 1999, he made an overland trip from Hong Kong to Delhi that took him through rural China and Pakistan.

He joined The New York Times as an intern and was promoted to staff writer in the fall of 2001. He has worked on the metro, sports and business desks.  Edward has been covering the war in Iraq since November 2003.  He lives in a compound in downtown Baghdad that is surrounded by concrete blast walls and concertina wire and is guarded by Iraqi men with Kalashnikovs.

On breaks from covering the war, he often visits his parents and friends in Alexandria.

T.C. Williams Class of 1990
B.A., University of Virginia, 1994
M.J./M.I.A.S., University of California at Berkeley, 1998/1999

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