Leadership

There has been not a better leadership skill builder than student journalism. In the past four years, I have helped lead my staff to both national and state recognition while maintaining an environment that everyone feels welcome and apart of. I strive to be not just a leader in the sense of a boss but someone my staff members can approach with any situation whether story related or something at home.

Editor-In-Chief

From Broadsheet to News Magazine

The role of editor-in-chief calls for leadership within itself, however, l held a string of leadership roles before earning this honor. As a freshman with no design experience, I filled the role as business editor when the former editor left the staff and even proceeded to design a front page when our editor-in-chief was absent. The next year I continued my role as business editor and began sitting in on design days, learning everything there was to know about laying-out a page. This effort landed me the position of in-depth editor - a position usually given to a senior co-editor - as a junior. Senior year, I was named editor-in-chief and immediately began working to better my program.

As editor-in-chief, my advisor and I decided this year, The Crimson Crier would transition from the traditional broadsheet format to a news magazine. This decision came after looking at feedback from my staff that suggested they wanted the opportunity to design more creatively. After spending the summer working with different fonts and text sizes, as well as redesigning the masthead, bylines, and banners, I successfully led my staff through the difficult transition. The project took countless hours but in the end proved worth it as we have broke records of copies taken from our news stands. I have been throughly impressed with our news magazine and the leadership skills I used to create it.

In the Classroom

Fighting Prior Review

I know my role in the classroom is vital to the workmanship of the newsroom. I begin each day by greeting the class and going over objectives for the day, week and for the issue we are producing. When deadlines are given, I send out reminders via GroupMe and Instagram DM to remind my staff members of their assignments. I hold one-on-one meetings with first year reporters to assist in constructing interview questions and exploring interesting angles. In the little down time we have after managing a website, four social media pages and our print edition, I like to conduct team building activities and teach journalist lessons.

As a student journalist, there is nothing more defeating than being told the story you have been working for weeks needs to be reworded or that the front page you have designed cannot be used. Unfortunately, my staff and I deal with these occurrences almost daily. For the past year, I have had one-on-one meetings with administration to try and shed light on the importance of not just writing PR pieces for our school but reporting real news. Those meetings showing little progress, I have contacted the Student Press Law Center and our superintendent to investigate options of allowing my staff to be true journalist.

In the Community

Write Mind

My mission in life is to use the talents God has given me in order to serve others. It came to my surprise when I was asked to do just that with my journalist skills. My staff chooses an organization or non-profit each year to volunteer with. We have worked with Wounded Warriors, 305 8th Street and the Teen PSA organization as a class while I have worked with The Downtown Rescue Mission and Community Connections on a more personal basis. After these experiences, I looked for other ways to use the skills I have developed as a student journalist and now manage my school's student section social media as well as produce media for the basketball team and the medical academy program.

In the past couple of years, we have all seen the importance of understanding the purpose of journalism. To help promote good journalism in our community, my adviser and staff created "Write Mind." This program allows elementary and middle school students in our cluster to write articles we then post on our website. I even assisted a teacher at one of our middle schools in creating a "newsletter" that students reported for, edited and designed. Our mission is to create a love for writing at a young age and foster the mind of the future student journalist that will one day step foot into our classroom.