News Writing and Reporting
This was one of the most impactful stories I've ever written. I was the one who originally came up with the idea to do an issue about underage drinking because I saw that it was one of the biggest issues in my peer group. While writing this, I interviewed a sexual assault survivor, a teenager whose thrown parties where people have gotten MIPs but still drinks and a local police officer. I completely spearheaded this story and saw this issue through until the end. I learned a lot about working well with others, my peers and the ethics of talking to anonymous sources.
This story about vaping is my favorite I've ever written. This was the first time I've ever interviewed anonymous sources and I learned a lot about ethics. Furthermore, when this story came out, everyone was freaking out about the fact that we were able to write about this. I was walking down the hallway and everyone had the paper open looking at this page. I learned a lot about how to properly write a story and the ethics behind anonymity. This story affected how I wrote every story after.
This story is about who many consider to be the smartest person in last year's senior class; he's now a freshman at Princeton. Initially, I was told to write about him getting the prestigious Coca Cola Scholarship, but this turned into so much more. I got him comfortable to talk about the academic pressure he's put himself under and his mental state. This was one of the most powerful interviews I've ever done, and I still think about it to this day. This encouraged me to dig deeper; the first interview doesn't tell the whole story. Everyone struggles, even if it seems like they have it all, and the subject of this story told me he was so happy to finally get this off his chest.
This story was definitely the most fun to write. The subject of this story, Robert Zynda, is the infamous environmental science teacher that I had last year. He was always telling stories about his time in college trying to get money, fishing with his friends and convincing his kids to go hunting. I never laughed harder during an interview than during this one. I learned about how to piece together a story that could have been double the length and decide that truly is important.
I am extremely proud of my column I wrote last year. I spent my middle school years living in Bangkok, Thailand, and never really had the opportunity to reflect on everything I was experiencing while there; this column allowed me to do that. Every month I wrote about something different, connecting my life there with being an American high schooler. This column in particular won me an Excellence Award from the Bobby Hawthrone Experience at MIPA and made the subject, Claire, cry.