Before Mark Schoeff Jr. (M’91) became a journalist, he wanted to be a basketball player.
However, the dream was short-lived. After he joined the basketball team at Northrop High School in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, during his sophomore year, he soon realized that he was too short for the game and too slow for the court.
“I shared the same dream nearly every kid in Indiana had in the ’80s—I thought that being a basketball star would be part of my life’s trajectory,” Schoeff says. “I was down in the dumps about it, but one day the journalism teacher waved me over and said, ‘Mark, if you can’t play sports, why don’t you write about them?’”
With that encouragement, Schoeff redirected his passion into being a sportswriter for his school’s newspaper and then for the Fort Wayne New Sentinel.
Now that he is president of the National Press Club, it’s clear Schoeff has made the most of that redirection. The prestigious club, based in Washington, DC, is regarded as the world’s leading professional organization for journalists and communications professionals.
Schoeff joined the National Press Club in 2005. Since then, he has served as a committee chair and cochair, a board member, and an officer. He was voted to become the club’s 119th president in late 2025 and began his yearlong term in February.
Schoeff performs this role alongside his current job as the financial services reporter at CQ Roll Call, a news service specializing in Capitol Hill coverage. He previously spent 14 years as a senior reporter for Investment News.
“It can be challenging,” Schoeff says. “I must serve as president as diligently as I work at my job, and this can get demanding—especially when Congress is in session and the club is busy. But it has meant so much to me. I’m happy to give back to the club, as best I can, during my year as president.”
Schoeff’s Purdue journey began in 1976 at the age of 6, when he visited campus with his parents to see his older sister. When it came time for him to be a Purdue student, Schoeff served as a residence hall counselor and was selected for Mortar Board senior honor society—but his most formative experiences came at the Exponent, the university’s student newspaper. Schoeff joined the newspaper his freshman year and stayed for four years, starting as a reporter before doing stints as a campus editor, city editor, copy chief, and senior writer.
“The Exponent is a journalism lab not unlike a chemistry lab—it’s where students learn the fundamentals of journalism,” Schoeff says. “You learn how to exchange ideas, how to get both sides of a story, and how to let the voices on campus speak through coverage. Perhaps most importantly, you learn by just going out there and doing it on your own.”
At that time, the newspaper was published every weekday, so he quickly learned to balance his journalistic deadlines with his academic ones. He taught himself how to draft articles in his head before entering the newsroom—a skill he still uses today.
“Earlier this year, I was sitting in on a committee vote, and I already knew exactly where I wanted to go with the story as the vote was occurring,” Schoeff says. “I started doing that sort of thing at the Exponent almost 40 years ago.”
Schoeff has spent the past 35 years living on the East Coast, but he has always maintained a connection to Purdue. He visits campus once or twice a year for sporting events and remains involved with the Exponent alumni group. He also serves as a mentor for the Boilers Go to DC experiential learning program, which is offered through the Brian Lamb School of Communication.
Even though he never became their basketball star, Schoeff stays connected to his hometown through the Mark and Helen Schoeff Memorial Scholarship, which he set up in honor of his parents. The award is given annually to an outstanding Northrop High School senior staying in Indiana for their next educational steps, and Schoeff is there every May to present it.
“My parents were educators for 36 years in the Fort Wayne educational system—their whole lives revolved around educating young people and helping to shape their lives,” Schoeff says. “This is a way to keep their educational legacy alive.”
Schoeff handed out his 20th scholarship this year.
—Keagan Slocum
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