Joseph Ostapiuk

My journey into journalism began in a small classroom in Molloy College's Sienna Hall.

English professor Richard Conway sat with me week after week, dissecting articles and helping cultivate my interests and curiosities in the minutiae of what goes into a news story, which I knew near nothing about. I soon covered events and features for the college's website and, despite my studies in education, decided I would leap headfirst into journalism.

Local reporting gives me a chance to contribute to Newsday's legacy and I consider it an immense privilege.

Conway’s guidance and that experience helped me get an internship at my hometown paper, the Staten Island Advance, which eventually became my first job as a reporter. That role covering disasters, climate, the environment and breaking news for six years offered an opportunity to see the difference local reporting can make.

It's that difference that drives me in my pursuit of journalism on Long Island – a place where I've spent much of my adult life.

Newsday is an indispensable bulwark against corruption on Long Island and a driver of the news that matters to the millions who live here. From the first day I began working on the Towns team, that mission was apparent, and it's one I feel passionate about upholding.

The reporters who make calls, sift through records and write news stories serve as models of the type of journalism I feel is necessary to keep readers informed.

Local reporting gives me a chance to contribute to Newsday's legacy and I consider it an immense privilege.

As I get closer to a decade in journalism, I like to think I know a bit more about what goes into a news story. My passion for information, however, hasn't changed a bit.

Education: Molloy College

Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the City of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com.

Honors and Awards: First place, New York News Publishers Association, multimedia presentation, 2022; First place, New York News Publishers Association, Hurricane Ida coverage, 2021; First place, New York News Publishers Association, breaking news coverage, 2020.