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REPORTING AND WRITING
Because of my roles on staff, reporting and writing has always looked a little different than the rest of the staff. As the Viewpoints Editor my sophomore year, my goal was to report on various issues surrounding the CCHS and Athens community through editorial writing. As EIC my junior and senior years, I have a similar role, as I write the Letter From the Editor column for each issue. While this differs from traditional news, editorials are a crucial element to journalistic writing, which can be used to bring to light important topics and provide practical calls to action. While editorials are my strong point, I also worked to create other quality news pieces throughout my journalistic career.
COLUMNS
MO KNOWS
My sophomore year, as Viewpoints Editor, I produced three of my editorial columns entitled Mo Knows. Writing these columns began as a challenge for me, as I was fresh out of Journalism One, and I wasn't fully confident in my writing abilities yet. In my first two columns, I did a lot of "armchair" reporting, getting all of my data from websites and online statistics. It wasn't until I sat down with my adviser for my story assignments for the final issue that year that I realized I had to treat editorials just like any other story, and I needed to get out into my community and find the right sources. I ended up writing my third column on the "that girl" trend that I saw circulating the internet, and I had a very successful interview with our school psychologist.
I definitely attribute that third column as my true entrance into the world of journalism. Writing these columns really helped change my perspective of journalistic writing, as it allowed me to see the value in opposing viewpoints and in collecting the right data for the story. Click on the photos above to read my columns from Vol. 19: Issues 1, 2 and 3.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Last year, I produced four of my editorial columns entitled Letter From The Editor. These columns differed a lot from Mo Knows, as I began to use these more as blogs instead of editorials. This is mostly due to the fact that I was juggling so much with being a new EIC, I didn't make time to interview and plan out thoughtful editorial ideas, and my LFTE fell to the back burner. I am still very proud of these columns, as they allowed me to share parts of my identity as a leader, student, and dancer with our readership, but it did make me miss writing harder hitting pieces.
As a result, I was determined to write a solid editorial for my first Letter From the Editor of senior year. After hours of researching possible topics, I landed on writing something about the banning of AP African American Studies in many schools across the US. This topic was, and remains, an issue that I am very passionate about, as I believe that students' learning shouldn't be hindered, and that history should be taught truthfully and in full.
I went through round upon round of edits and revisions, until I finally got to a place where I felt satisfied. I had never been through such an extensive story writing process before, and while it felt a little disheartening at times, I was determined to keep pushing through because this was a story that I truly cared about putting out into the world. This editorial is definitely the strongest piece I have ever written in my career as a journalist, and it re-invigorated a passion for interviewing and storytelling in me that I didn't know I had lost.
For this story, I interviewed our principal at our press conference for the cycle, as well as a teacher from a neighboring high school in the district who teaches APAAS.
I did hours of extensive research, looking into the history of the course, legislation that was being passed around the country, and how it related back to students at my own school. It was a lot, so I ended up making this massive research document to organize my thoughts and ensure that I was keeping track of the information.
MAGAZINE + WEB
Q&A WITH THE SUPERINTENDENT
For my first issue as Editor-in-Chief last year, my adviser thought that it would be beneficial for me to get back into news writing and set a pace for the rest of the staff by doing a Q&A with our superintendent, Dr. Xernona Thomas, who was retiring that year. I was originally very nervous, as it had been several months since I had interviewed anyone and it was my first big story as EIC, but I as soon as I met with Dr. Thomas, I was immediately set at ease.
We had a very conversational, intentional interview, about her time in the district and the legacy she hoped to leave behind, and I really appreciated her candor throughout. To this day, I still consider it to be one of the best interviews I've ever had, and I attribute it to being the interview that helped me gain some confidence in my writing and interviewing abilities.
DOUBLE DAWG CHAMPIONSHIP
In January of last year, me and a team of my colleagues covered the University of Georgia National Championship Parade that was happening in Athens. This was my first experience doing a real event coverage with a team, so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I ended up having a great time and our coverage won an award. We followed the parade around the route, getting footage of the players on the floats, as well as interviews with bystanders.
As the only self-proclaimed football expert on the team, I was in charge of writing/editing and multimedia, so I recorded the speeches that the coaches and other officials gave during the event, and I helped fact-check and put together the story to be published. I made soundcites and helped with the embed of the news coverage video, as well. It was stressful having to put everything together and have a completed story in less than 24 hours, but we pulled it off, and I am so grateful for the experience.
BEATS
Each member of the ODYSSEY staff works to create beats every three weeks, which are 300-word news briefs that preview an upcoming event or change within our school. We have done beats my sophomore year and then again my senior year, and so far, I have gotten eight of my beats published on our website. Sophomore year, my beat was science classes/service clubs and the visual art department, and this past semester, I covered the Clarke County School District administration.
With both sets of beats, I worked to build relationships with those who were in my area, from club sponsors to district representatives. It was important to me to establish these connections, because I didn't want my beats to feel like I was taking advantage of those who were helping me, just so I could turn in my story on time. I wanted to cultivate a sense of real gratitude for my stakeholders and be able to reach out to them and cover their parts of their community honestly and effectively.
For example, I frequently communicated with Ms. Amanda Price, one of the teachers in the fine arts department, about upcoming events and opportunities for coverage. Because of this connection, she ended up writing me a very sweet recommendation letter my sophomore year, which is linked to the left.
This year, our district had some change in leadership, especially within the upper positions, so since my beat was CCSD administration, I figured doing something to introduce the CCHS community to the new members of the board would be very beneficial. I worked with my adviser to devise a plan for an alternate beat where I sent a survey out to each of the members of the administrative team, asking them questions about what they hoped to accomplish during their time in the district, what their specific position does within the community, and generally what their job looks like on a day to day basis. After gathering responses from each member, I collected headshots and put everything together in Canva to be posted on our website. Click on the photo to read the full beat!
PUBLISHED IN THE ILIAD
Aside from being published in a traditional news format, I have also been published for my creative works. My freshman year, I submitted some of my creative work to the ODYSSEY's sister program, the iliad Literary-Art Magazine, and my short story "Lucy's Way Home" was chosen to be published in that year's edition.
FAILED ATTEMPTS
My sophomore year, we had a week where we split into teams and participated in a TOP (Team On-Site Production) competition. Our task was to work with our team to write a full profile on someone prominent in our school community in 5 days, and my team chose to write one on a coach at our school. However, our story never really lifted off the ground. My team and I procrastinated on setting up interviews with our stakeholders, we struggled to identify a clear angle, and our photos didn't have any context for what our story was on.
Despite our failure in completing the story, that week of TOP really helped me understand the importance of doing your research and understanding the "why" behind each story you write, and why effectively communicating with a team is a crucial step, no matter who you work with.
Last year, I found out about a senior who had entered a short animation (pictured to the right) into a contest in Los Angeles, and ended up winning first place, and I wanted to write a 300-word story about her background in animation.
However, despite my ambition, the story ended up falling flat. In my preliminary interview, I didn't ask the right questions for a stylized profile, which culminated in me having a lot of surface-level quotes and tons of additional questions. I ended up having to take the loss with the story, which was disappointing, because I felt that I was letting down my stakeholder and myself.
If I could go back and re-attempt this story, I would have tried to go deeper in the interview and get to the root of why she felt so dedicated to animation and how it really impacted her.
REFLECTION
EDITOR'S JOURNAL
Each month, I write an Editor's Journal that gives a report on my personal progress and accomplishments, and those of my staffers. I also write a one page summary on how I am feeling about the workload and what I hope to accomplish in the coming weeks. Completing these journals each month have become a very therapeutic process for me, as they allow me to put my feelings down in writing and receive helpful advice from my advisor. Click on the photo to view one of my Editor's Journals.
CYCLE REFLECTIONS
At the end of each cycle, our staff goes in and writes a reflection on how they feel about the past several weeks in terms of interviewing and working with stakeholders. We rank ourselves on a scale from 1-10 on our interviewing abilities, discuss our best and worst interviews of the term, and identify areas where we need to work to improve for the coming cycle. Click on the photo to read my most recent cycle reflection.
NSPA CONFERENCE REFLECTION
At the end of each conference we attend, each member of the ODYSSEY is required to write a conference reflection that explains what we took away from the experience and how we will work to implement new practices into our daily routines in the classroom. I enjoy writing these reflections, as they allow me to work through any lingering thoughts or feelings I have about the trip and make a game plan on how to move forward. Click on the photo to read my conference reflection from the NSPA 2023 conference.
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