{"id":12356,"date":"2024-09-11T15:38:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/11\/from-underdog-to-up-and-coming\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:23:37","slug":"from-underdog-to-up-and-coming","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/11\/from-underdog-to-up-and-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"From underdog to up-and-coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Loving Worcester becomes a career for Tom Matthews \u201916<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n Downtown Worcester\n

 <\/p>\n

\"man
Tom Matthews ’16 in Worcester City Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If there’s one thing Worcester-born Tom Matthews ’16 wants you to know about him, it’s that he is the city’s biggest fan.<\/p>\n

“Worcester residents are very proud. They take things personally. They take care of each other. they’re resilient,” he says. Matthews worked as a journalist covering the city during the pandemic, and witnessed how Worcester came together amid a global crisis. “I did a lot of interviews with folks who were either on the front lines or giving back in some way,” he says.<\/p>\n

Aside from a semester-long sojourn at Curry College in Milton, Matthews’ education has been rooted in Central Massachusetts. He graduated from St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, and after sustaining a football injury at Curry, Matthews moved back to Worcester and enrolled at Quinsigamond Community College. There, he took the course Creation of Nationalism with Clark Sociology Professor Parminder Bhachu<\/a>,<\/u> which inspired him to enroll at Clark and major in English<\/a>.<\/u><\/p>\n

Since graduating, Matthews has worked in a variety of roles in the Worcester community. He’s been a reporter at Worcester Magazine<\/em> and MassLive, a public relations and social media coordinator for the Worcester Railers Hockey Club, and a marketing and content specialist for Niche Hospitality Group.<\/p>\n

His introduction to the hockey club came when he and a Worcester Magazine<\/em> colleague made a commercial for the team. “I didn’t know anything about hockey,” he says, “but I could help the team tell its story.”<\/p>\n

Matthews is now the media and public relations administrator for Worcester, working closely with City Manager Eric Batista to communicate with the city’s residents. He fields media requests for most of the 16 city departments and spreads the word about initiatives that Worcester is engaged in, such as economic development or new housing initiatives like the down payment assistance and affordable housing preservation programs.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

“Clark was a transformative and foundational part of my life. I got to spend time around people who really cared about the written word, cared about reading, and approached it in a very serious manner but also didn’t take themselves too seriously at the same time.”<\/p>\n

<\/cite>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n