Journalist as caped crusader with special powers

Tini Tran, right, chats with students after her talk 

on "Survival Skills for a Foreign Correspondent"

When she was in middle school, Tini Tran was assigned to a journalism class and her career path became clear.

As a refugee from Vietnam living in the U.S., she had been very shy. But as a reporter on her school newspaper, she could ask anyone any question at any time. She felt transformed, like one of those superheroes who acquires special powers by donning a magic cape. She was shy no more.

Tran, a veteran correspondent for the Associated Press in Beijing, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, was a guest of the Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University April 13.