● National Student Journalist of the Year Runner-Up ●
Some of the member's of The Spoke's 2022-23 Editorial Board at our annual senior dinner last May.
My Portfolio: Commitment to Diversity
As the founder of People Magazine once said,
"We tell stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and extraordinary people doing ordinary things."
I made this saying my journalistic motto.
During the summer before my senior year, I revisited The Spoke's policies. I proposed numerous edits, especially under the "Our Rights" and "Your Voice" sections. I put the suggestions up for a Managerial Board vote and saw every single one of my additions passed. One of my biggest goals as Editor-in-Chief was ensuring that The Spoke covered the community respectfully, ethically and inclusively. The first step to achieving this goal was enacting strong policies by which the paper could stand.
The Banned List
As the Copy Editor during my sophomore year, I oversaw The Spoke's "Banned List," a compilation of every single student and teacher in the school. The purpose of this list is twofold: it helps us keep track of who we've interviewed over the course of the year and ensures that we maintain a diversity of viewpoints in our reporting.
The Spoke's rule of thumb is that after a source is interviewed twice in the same year, they are "banned" and can no longer be interviewed in another article (with a few exceptions). In a school of more than 2,300 students, it is not difficult to obtain a diverse array of student voices — we just have to go out and find them.
Since I was the Copy Editor, I have helped the Copy Editors who came after me set up and run a Banned List every year.
Part of the seemingly never-ending Banned List on which I kept track of how many articles and/or photos in which we quoted every student and teacher.
Diversity in the Opinion Section
The Opinion Section is where diversity of thought comes to life. Pro/Cons are my favorite vehicles for debate. It's one thing to read about one side of an argument, but it's another to see how both sides of a problem weigh against each other. Even better, Pro/Cons are often the pieces that get the most public attention — more people see their stake in the issue when both sides are represented.
This year, I made sure The Spoke included one Pro/Con in every issue. These opinions ranged in topic and weight, from a friendly STEM vs. humanities debate to a discussion about the Supreme Court's overruling of Affirmative Action in college admissions over the summer.
The Opinion Section doesn't end with Pro/Cons. The Spoke, when an issue arises, often publishes an unsigned editorial expressing the Editorial Board's stance on an issue. Earlier this year, The Spoke covered some district parents' attempt to have a book with LGBTQ+ themes removed from the school library due to alleged religious discrimination (read the article here). The front-page article we produced came with some baggage.
The reporters who originally wanted to cover this story were unable to due to perceived bias — because of their religion and gender identity, they could be perceived as partial while covering the issue. Once I finally put together a team of reporters whom the public wouldn't have objected to based on their surface-level identities, another issue arose. One of the parents requesting that Conestoga remove the book from its library threatened the reporters with a lawsuit if they included her name in their story.
Needless to say, this one story caused immense controversy, both in and out of the newsroom. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Spoke published an unsigned in the same issue. The editorial received a majority of the Editorial Board vote (18-2, with 2 abstaining).
Diversity in the News Section
When the Israel-Hamas war broke out, I knew that The Spoke could not remain silent on the issue. While our journalistic obligations did not extend to sending a reporter into an active warzone, we had a unique angle from which to report: the community lens. The Spoke covered the issue with respect and honesty and highlighted students and community members on "both sides" of the issue.
Now, The Spoke and I never claim "both sides-ism," but for this story, we found that the most balanced approach would be to highlight everyone. The article covers a Jewish student selling bracelets to raise money to support the Israeli Defense Force as well as a Muslim student raising money to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The article highlights the voices of a local Rabbi and a board member of an Islamic community center. This article exemplified diverse reporting. You can view the article below or here.
It is no secret that Conestoga's student population is majority white. But the white majority has been declining in recent years. As of the 2022-23 school year, 40% of the school district's student body identified as non-white. However, at the same time, only 9% of the district's faculty identified as the same. This discrepancy was newsworthy. The Spoke investigated this trend and published an in-depth look at the school district's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, especially in hiring faculty. I was the News Editor when The Spoke published this article. It went under numerous rounds of edits and extensive fact-checking. With a subject as important as this, I was not about to take any risks. You can view the article below or here.
