Maharishi School and MUM alumni Jennie Rothenberg Gritz is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine. When she started her job in 2015, her employer was quite familiar with MUM, since the magazine featured Fairfield as one of the 20 best small towns to visit in 2013.
“It was wonderful to start a new job and realize I didn’t have to explain Transcendental Meditation,” said Jennie. “People see it as an asset in my background that makes me better suited to handling stress and coming up with creative ideas.”
Jennie grew up in Fairfield and graduated from Maharishi School in 1993. She went on to attendMaharishi University and earned a major in literature and a minor in writing in 1997. Jennie loved learning about the world through storytelling. After completing the Transcendental Meditation® Teacher Training Course, she went to graduate school at UC Berkeley and majored in journalism.
In 2006 Jennie started working at The Atlantic magazine as senior editor. She was instrumental in developing the online version of the magazine and turning it into a robust internet publication. Now she writes and edits articles for the print edition of Smithsonian, which satisfies her curiosity and thirst for knowledge. “The whole driving force behind the magazine is knowledge and the excitement of learning new things,” she explains, “it’s great to be part of that.”
Jennie lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, MSAE alumnus Jonathan Gritz, and two small children. In her free time, she enjoys singing and playing the guitar. She also makes sure to visit Fairfield regularly.
“TM helps me work better under pressure, be happier inside, and have more clarity,” said Jennie. “Just like at any job, we have deadlines; we have things that don’t turn out the way we expected. Meditating makes it easier to stay focused and do my job well, but not take success or failure too seriously.”
It's wonderful to track the careers of our alumni and see them thriving and enjoying life! We're pleased to announce that Jennie will be the graduation speaker for the Maharishi School class of 2017 - we look forward to her speech, and know she will be a great role model for our students.
Thanks to Maharishi University for permission to reprint photos and text from their article.
