2018-2019
My second year on staff allowed me to take more chances with my writing. Being one of two juniors on the newspaper leadership team gave me more responsibilities to take on.
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ADHD explored: Addressing misconceptions and erasing the stigma
I wanted to write about ADHD because I don't think it is talked about enough. There are many misconceptions about it, so another editor and I agreed to write a in-depth health feature on it. For this story, I conducted a 45 minute interview-- easily the longest interview I had conducted thus far. This taught me the power of conversations. I saw how people can really open up in that situation. I am proud of how this story candidly talks about medication and its pros and cons. I felt more comfortable tackling larger stories after writing this feature.
I received an honorable mention from MIPA for this story in the category of Health Feature.
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Biology club faces new challenge: Club commits to competing in the National Science Olympiad
This news story was initially supposed to be about how the biology club did not have enough funding to go to the Olympiad. I wrote the story under that assumption. However, just a few days before we were about to print this issue, one of my sources contacted me and said that they had new ideas of how to fundraise and planned to attend the competition. I had to do some quick follow up reporting to finish the story on time. This story showed me how you have to be able to adapt to be a good journalist. I am proud of my reporting in this piece, and learning about a club I never knew about made writing this story more enjoyable.
I received an honorable mention from MIPA for this story in the category of News Analysis.
Dig deeper: Civil Rights Data Collection shows discrepancies
When another editor and I found a recent report published about our school's discipline practices, we went through all the data and found some interesting information. I am really proud of this feature because it was purely data driven. We realized that black students received harsher punishments more often. I took our findings to our administration and examined why theses differences existed and brainstormed solutions to combat them. We brought ideas like restorative practices to our school. For the story, I reached out to alumni and talked to them about their time at South and what problems they saw. I also spoke to current student of color at my school to get their perspective on the problem. This feature was meaningful because I was able to find a problem that I cared about and propose new solutions.
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Stop, drop and reconfigure: Amidst low enrollment, district plans for reconfiguration
Our school district had been dealing with low enrollment for a while, and in November 2018, it was announced that something had to change immediately. Another staffer and I attended the board meetings each week and stayed engaged in the process. Finally, there were proposed plans to close elementary schools and change the grade configuration in elementary and middle schools. This made many community members angry and confused. We took it upon ourselves to do more research and write an in-depth feature on the changes and why they were occurring. This story was very timely and thorough. We spoke to community members, school board representatives, and a middle school principal. We wanted to cover the story from all sides. I think it is important that a school paper is able to inform the community with news that is most relevant to them.
I received an honorable mention from MIPA for this story and the design I did in the category of story package.