2021 Michigan Journalist of the Year Portfolio
Experience
Detroit Free Press
Highlights:
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Learning the ropes from COVID-19-covering powerhouse Kristen Shamus
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Collaborating with esteemed editorial cartoonist Mike Thompson (who I actually first met as a freshman during the 2017 MIPA Fall Conference!)
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Engaging in a one-on-one conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Peter Bhatia regarding the future of professional journalism
Despite my love and appreciation for The Tower, my relationship with the field of journalism itself has been a complicated one at best. Joining my school’s newspaper staff of over ninety staffers as just a freshman, it was easy to feel lost in the shuffle of weekly deadlines, constant edits, and a leadership team that felt all too distant. By the time I had found my most authentic place on staff as the Supervising Editor-at-Large, I had already made up my mind that journalism just wasn’t for me— or so I thought.
Applying on whim in search of a cure for the "quarantine blues," I was selected to join the Detroit Free Press' six-student summer apprentice team. Though COVID-19 shortened the apprenticeship program from six weeks to three, being a summer apprentice at the Detroit Free Press reignited a love for journalism I thought I had long lost.
On the summer apprentice team, the volume of my voice and how well it trumped those of others was not what mattered. What mattered was the quality of my ideas, how well I collaborated with my fellow apprentices, and the collective satisfaction we all felt after discovering a unique angle, taking on a difficult interview, or publishing our first bylines.
I could not be more grateful both for the lessons I learned and for the gracious mentors who taught them, and I am hopeful that I will be "on guard" with the Detroit Free Press staff again in the near future.
Columbia Scholastic Press Association
In the spring of 2019, I attended the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Spring Conference with The Tower's leadership team. Though the primary goal of the trip was to commend the staff on its much-deserved CSPA Crown Award, the student-led panels and critique sessions provided both the advice and inspiration necessary to developing my own personal goals for next year's publication as the rising Supervising Editor-at-Large.
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That said, I never expected I would receive an in-depth analysis of The Tower from The New York Times' Steve Kenny himself.
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With the help of our adviser, our small team was able to meet Kenny during the conference's break for lunch, where our staff crammed our way into one of the NYT newsrooms to receive a step-by-step walkthrough of the design process behind the front page of every issue of The New York Times.
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And yet, the most powerful of Kenny's words were in reference to our very own Tower, with our most recent print issue seeming almost awkwardly out of place on the newsroom's table. Encouraged by his kind comments, I looked to my future as the then-rising Supervising Editor-at-Large with excitement.
Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
Following my freshman year on staff, I attended the 2018 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association's Summer Workshop, where I enrolled in Jim Woehrle's InDesign for Newspaper course (though I was truly utilizing the classes in preparation for my new role as The Looking Glass' Supervising Page Designer, despite having no prior page design experience). In spite of my novice skills, Mr. Woehrle's eager-to-teach attitude motivated me to push through, and I found myself flourishing when Mr. Woehrle urged me to include my own illustrations and graphics in my mock pages.
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At the end of the workshop, he honored my efforts with an Excellence Award in InDesign-- a gesture I still look back on fondly (especially when working on a particularly difficult page).
Student Press Law Center
On February 4th, 2021, I was met with the unique opportunity to attend an Op-Ed Boot Camp led by CNN's Steven A. Holmes, an esteemed veteran journalist collaborating with the Student Press Law Center in order to encourage students to participate in Student Press Freedom Day.
Though the event was not without Holmes' own digs at the "inherently narcissistic" nature of op-ed writing, Holmes' emphasis on utilizing some of the same techniques I had grown to love in creative writing-- such as powerful imagery, succinct word choice, and thoughtful metaphors-- helped to genuinely excite me about a genre of journalism I had previously found quite straightforward.
By the end of the Boot Camp, I found myself reconsidering just how complicated the op-ed genre can be. Though an op-ed journalist's primary source is oftentimes themselves, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the questions one must ask are perhaps even more demanding than those posed to an outside source, such as:
"Why should anyone care about what I'm trying to say?"
"Is there an actual solution to the problem I'm calling attention to?"
"Why do I even care about this topic?"
As someone who prides themselves on using journalism as a tool for advocacy, I am eager to use Holmes' tips as I draft my own op-ed with mentor Tracy Schmaler.