REPORTING & WRITING
From writing stories and captions that truly capture the year, to stepping out of my comfort zone by interviewing students, reporting and writing are some of my strong suits. Originally set on yearbook, joining newspaper staff opened up my eyes to a whole new side of journalism. See below a few of my newspaper stories from online and hardcopy.
ONLINE NEWS WRITING
Panther Press is the official online student-run news website for my school Klein Oak High School. It covers topics relevant to the community such as school events, local news, sports, and student perspectives.
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"Starting A New Era"
This feature dives deep into the story of volleyball player Tatum Lockhardt and her achievements during her career. Going into the story I knew I wanted to cover someone from the volleyball team since they had made it to playoffs for the first time in years. After talking with their coach, we decided Lockhardt was the definite choice. The only difficult part is that I didn't know anything about volleyball but after researching I learned a lot and I was able to create a story showcasing Lockhardt's journey on the court.
"New Shimmer"
In this piece, I wrote about the Strutter's dance team introducing new uniforms as they began performing at basketball games for the first time. Before I started writing I planned to only report on the new uniforms but after further research, I found a whole new side of the story. I learned about how the dancers were navigating the transition to a new performance setting never done before. With this, I decided to revise the story and focus on the meaning of their new uniforms and how the dancers felt with the change.
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"Through the Era's Tour"
To highlight the impact of Taylor Swift Era's Tour I wanted to write a story focusing on its cultural significance, musical journey, social activism, and economic influence. The biggest challenge I faced was sourcing students who attended Swift's concert due to the high resale prices of tickets which a limited number of people could afford. Despite this, I aimed to showcase the transformation experiences shared by fans and illustrate the societal and economics successes of the tour.
HARD COPY NEWS WRITING
Each year our newspaper staff creates two hard-copy news pieces in either a magazine or newspaper style to cover each semester.
"Catch Me If You Can"
For this article, I wanted to highlight the achievements of the track and field team as it's an unappreciated sport at my school. With this, I wanted to showcase their performances including statistics with times and places in their events which made it difficult to ensure the accuracy of the article. Most of the athletes don't have a record of this information so I had to locate it from authentic sources from their coach's staff and timing companies.
"Lettered: Evolution of iconic letterman jackets"
Before researching this story I had no idea how the lettermen jackets began. For the longest time, I thought it was only for athletes in varsity so after exploring the significance of the jacket I wanted to highlight the history from where it began. I also wanted to make sure to showcase the diverse range of patches and personal stories associated with the jacket including academics, art, and sports. Through student interviews, I was able to capture the unique significance of each jacket as a representation of individual accomplishments.