Embedded Files
Truth and honesty are more than aspirational goals for journalists; they lie at the core of what we do. We journalists must practice fidelity to truth.
As a news reporter, I start with that duty. My instinct is to find significance in human stories that others might overlook or dismiss, because I believe there is always something extraordinary in the ordinary. I find people of interest in my school's Instagram community. I listen, especially in the most mundane places, like English class or in our hallways. And then I dig deep.
Whether I'm conducting an interview, photographing a protest (as when I caught this photo of Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse), or covering an athletic or artistic event, my duty to the truth is foremost in my mind. And whether I'm covering a fiery political debate or the founding of a new club, I try to find the unexpected angles and distinctive perspectives that can shed new light on the news.
To see my writing in specific areas, you can scroll on this page or click the Reporting & Writing subtabs. I've grouped them into News, Features, Sports, and Op-Eds.
NEWS
NEWS
Denver is a hotbed of politics and protest. It seems we have marches downtown every week, and this one, in some ways, fit that pattern: a group chanting and waving signs marched up Colfax Avenue to Capitol Hill to make their voices heard. But this event was different in that it was a time-honored Denver tradition: the annual Marade (half march, half parade), which celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I was struck by the crowd's resilience and sense of comity and community as they honored a hero. They were encouraged by local leaders, including Congressmen Jason Crow (D-6) and Joe Neguse (D-2), both of whom I had the privilege to interview after their speeches.
This article represented a personal as well as journalistic achievement for me. I had covered protests before, but I always hesitated to take my place alongside professional reporters and approach well-known local figures. This time, when I donned my school press pass and took my camera to the front row, the security team waved me past and the Denver Gazette reporter greeted me as an equal. I found the confidence to approach local leaders and get the meaningful quotes. Denver marched and celebrated on that cold day—and I got to capture it all through my writing and my lens.
March to October. Politics can change a lot in that span of time, but those six months of 2024 were even more remarkable for President Biden's decision to drop out of the race, as I discuss in my article. The election scene changed dramatically between the USJ's two election preview stories, both of which I worked on: one in March as a sophomore, and this one in October as a junior. This story is the very definition of "big issue, small perspective." I considered a national issue through the prism of my own school's take on the contest, exploring the decisive shift in political preferences in my school as people made up their minds and took a stand.
This story marked the first time I used quantitative data—specifically polling—as my main source. I gathered information from hundreds of students and spent hours making sure the polls were conducted and measured correctly. In the end, we got some striking results, and while I had fun gathering opinions from government teachers and student leaders to contextualize the data, polling was a fascinating way to develop a news feature. The story explores the most important takeaway from the poll: why Biden's departure from the race convinced so many people to get off the fence and support Kamala Harris.
This story was featured in my winning CSMA Reporter of the Year portfolio.
Creek's lecture hall was packed to the gills, but I found a place in the crowd as 88-year-old Osi Sladek spoke to students and teachers about his experiences fleeing the Nazis. I thought it was important not just to tell his story, but also to explain what he represented to our students. CCHS now has a Jewish club, whose members worry that the Holocaust will be forgotten amid today’s resurgent antisemitism and falsified history. I tried to relate their concerns, including their hopes that Sladek could discredit the Holocaust deniers and dispel the bigots, from our school and around the world. My story was as much about these students as it was about Sladek. This story gave me a challenge of finding perspectives that tell new and less visible narratives. It inspired me to look beyond the obvious story and find distinctive angles and valuable insights.
This story was featured in my winning CSMA Reporter of the Year portfolio.
This wasn't the first time workers from the Belleview Square King Soopers, just a few minutes' walk from campus, had gone on strike. Nor was it the first time the USJ had covered it. But I wasn't in high school those earlier times, so I was happy to have the chance to report on a union strike. I had to navigate all their legal barriers and I was unable to talk to any of the actual picketers in front of the store, because their union had such strict media clearance rules. But I tracked down a PR rep and he got me in contact with a qualified worker, and I got all the information I needed for a story I'm now quite proud of.
As News Editor, I was happy to take the lead in organizing our annual Power Week coverage, for which writers from the USJ work all week long to cover all the mini-games and dress-up days in the Student Senate's yearly blockbuster charity event. It was very fun to wander the school throughout the week and capture all the activity through my lens. I've covered this event in the past, but it was even more fun to put together this gallery, organize and mobilize the writers, and publish this collaborative effort. In addition to this story, some of my best shots from the 2025 and 2026 Power Weeks are featured in the Photojournalism tab.
The idea of a 'general strike' went viral across the nation and at Creek in late January. The announcement that appeared in student social media stories was clear: "No Work, No School, No Shopping on Jan. 30!" Many grassroots organizations united that day to shock the economy and protest ICE and President Trump's immigration policies. In Denver, a few planned protests and marches were set to converge in La Alma-Lincoln Park, at the heart of the neighborhood that once was home Denver's Chicano civil rights movement: a fitting place to defend immigrants' rights today. Sure enough, many students at my school skipped class that day, and thousands of Coloradans united for a huge rally. Luckily, I ran into a fellow Creek student at that rally, who both skipped school and took her whole family to the protest. I interviewed her along with several speakers at the event and put together a photo slideshow to accompany the article. I'm proud of this story because it's so timely and relevant, connecting national news with local and school interests, and I was able to pull it all together (writing and photo editing) within just a few hours of the event.
This was one of my proudest stories as a freshman reporter because of my main source. I was able to interview State Senator Lisa Cutter (D-20), a main sponsor on the bill. I experienced many technical difficulties in the process, and it took weeks to finally connect with Cutter for a video interview. But when I finally did, I got some insight into the daily life of a legislator: she had a very short time to talk during a break from Senate business, so she met with me directly from her chamber seat. She gave me so much good information about the issue, and excellent material about the bill's process. I also talked to a science teacher who raised questions about possible unforeseen consequences of the law, including for high school science labs.
This story won Best of SNO honors.
Throughout the 2023-24 school year, Creek tried to involve students in efforts to resolve what had become a major litter problem. There were club-sponsored events and cleanups during our weekly Advisory period. These Advisory cleanups, which I took part in, gave me the idea for the story. This article was a last-minute addition to our winter magazine, which required us to pivot with layout and content. I had to steam through this article, even as I approached finals week, but I'm still very happy with how it turned out.
I interviewed a few administrators to get their perspective on the school's plan to solve the trash crisis. I also talked to an environmental science teacher, who provided insight on the ecological effects of trash in our campus. Finally, I got valuable information from maintenance staff about how they were managing the issue directly.
This story won Best of SNO honors.
My band teacher was very enthusiastic about our district's in-house instrument repair team. He loved that it saved money and was more efficient than using an outside shop, and that the district is supporting technicians who are highly qualified for their work. I decided to get on the story because as a trumpet player in the band, I had an inside view on how it was helping Creek's music program. I drove over to Overland High School (another high school in the district, where the repair shop is located) after school one day to visit the two instrument techs in person. Not only did I get the chance to photograph them at work, but I also got to learn about their relationship as mentor and mentee and learn about how much work and time they devoted to getting the shop to its current, well-functioning state. This was a very fun story to write and was also featured in one of our magazines, which meant I got to design a page around it, too.
FEATURES
FEATURES
I love this story—I believe it's the finest writing I've done, and it had special personal meaning as my 100th story in high school, published in the fall magazine of my senior year. The story is about the old schoolhouse that sits in the center of Creek's quad: its history as a one-room rural school that was later abandoned, sold, and moved to a ranch, but later rediscovered, acquired by my high school, moved to our campus, and restored as a museum. The story is also about the building's uncertain future. Our campus is about to begin a huge rebuild, so I thought it was timely to discuss what might happen to this historic landmark.
The research for the story was intensive. My dad is a history professor at the University of Denver, and he brought me to the Denver Public Library downtown to dig into the archives for old news clippings and historic photos. We struck gold. We found a Rocky Mountain News story about the schoolhouse, published in 1947. We also found the News photographer's mint-condition negatives, which enabled me to illustrate the story with several remarkable photos that had never been published before. I used SNO design elements online to create galleries of old images of children who attended the school. I was able to piece together the history of the schoolhouse using microfilmed newspapers, plus a book published in the 1980s by an old district deputy superintendent, and I constructed a narrative of daily life in the school house using all of these materials.
Stories like these remind me what makes journalism so wonderful. Public records and libraries provide opportunities to dig for information until we find a story. I learned through creating the schoolhouse article that no stories have to remain untold—if we work hard enough to expose them.
Ever since my sophomore year, this pair greeted the school daily with their classic, cheerful message. Even on the grimmest mornings, they always put a smile on my face—and I wasn't alone, because these guys were schoolwide sensations. As they neared graduation, I decided it would be a good time to interview them. When I shared my idea with the features team, everyone thought it was an absolute hit. I thought it would be perfect for the last magazine of their time at Cherry Creek to highlight their contributions to the announcements, the Student Senate, and student body spirit events.
I'm proud of the quotes I got from Dex and Charlie, and also some great words from an administrator who had worked closely with them for years.
The page was also fun to design, with some childlike coloring crayon elements at the top. On the bottom we had a feature image that I took of the pair speaking into the mic for one of their final morning announcements.
There is no doubt that the Ukraine war began to fade from the spotlight as events like the presidential election and the Israel-Hamas conflict overshadowed it—but a group of students at Creek wanted to change that. They sold crafts like flowers and matryoshka dolls and donated the funds to a local organization that would send supplies to Ukrainians. I found their cause valiant. They wanted to make a difference, even if it was just through this limited effort. Club members knew (as they explained to me) that their contributions would be small in the grand scheme of things—but they wanted to show that the school still cared, and that eyes were still on Ukraine. This was perhaps the smallest story I covered that year: just a student-run stand selling handmade flowers. But it mattered to me to tell their story of initiative and commitment.
This story was featured in my winning CSMA Reporter of the Year portfolio.
When students at Creek's feeder school, Campus Middle School, drew swastikas on themselves after a Holocaust education program, the Union Street Journal decided to make our next magazine cover story about antisemitism in schools and nationwide. Our Editor-in-Chief reported on the school angle, and I took an approach of exploring pop culture's effects on the issue. I talked to members and the sponsor of our school's Jewish Student Connections club, making sure to focus on celebrities like Kanye West and Elon Musk, who were in the center of national stories about antisemitism. Musk had opened the door, through his social media platform X, for many antisemitic comments, while West had tweeted remarks that went viral for threatening Jews. I wrote about the ethical dilemma of monetarily supporting those celebrities through products like Teslas, Yeezys, or Twitter Blue. Because the regional branch of the Anti-Defamation League was getting involved in the uproar at Campus, I called the Denver office. I interviewed the regional director, who provided vital expertise about the topic of antisemitism relating to social media. He remains one of my essential contacts for any reporting I’ve done on issues related to antisemitism. I hoped the story would highlight how pop culture had created such an impact in schools, especially where celebrities have an outsize influence on student life. I was proud to bring this important issue to the spotlight in our school.
This story won First Place (Lifestyle News Coverage) from CSMA and Best of SNO honors.
Originally, I interviewed Michael to learn about his organization of a local TEDx event that was marketed towards Creek students. Only when we got into our conversation did I realize just how special his story was. Before he even got into hosting TEDx, his interest in TED was sparked by his own struggles during COVID. I wanted to tell this story aside from the TEDx article because it was so compelling. Unfortunately, I ran into troubles contacting one of his friends in TEDx, and I had to scrap that interview because my deadline was nearing. Otherwise, the sources served their roles perfectly, and I'm quite proud of this piece.
I always tell my writers that the best way to find stories is to keep an ear open and look in the most obvious places—the story might be in front of you all along. My biology teacher had become well-known for his skills in teaching and coaching golf. Every day, he uses his past experiences from graduate school and the expertise he earned through completing his Ph.D. I talked to some of his other students and members of the golf team, and I used the insider perspective I'd gotten from being in his class each day to talk about his teaching style. I also took the feature image to represent his two spheres of knowledge at Creek.
SPORTS
SPORTS
When I learned that two teams from the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) were coming to Denver for an exhibition game, I knew it was the perfect story for the USJ's audience. I knew many fellow students who planned to go to the game, many of whom play hockey at CCHS and in local clubs, and I knew they would be enthusiastic about encouraging participation in women's sports nationwide. The cherry on top? I landed an interview with one of the players—a goalie, originally from Colorado, who expressed her own excitement about the crowds of young girls and families who attended and the game's potential to inspire them. It's a shame Ball Arena didn't allow cameras; I made do with a cell phone and a massive crowd of passionate fans.
This story taught me a lot about sports journalism beyond the school scene, and it gave me practice writing a sports story of national importance in a way that can relate to my own local community.
This story won Best of SNO honors and was featured in my winning CSMA Reporter of the Year portfolio.
Some of the biggest sports news in Colorado was that our new NWSL women's soccer team, the Denver Summit, was building a presence in town. They are beginning a huge project near downtown for their permanent stadium, but in the meantime, they built a temporary complex to play and practice. After they leave for permanent facilities, the complex will be handed over to the Cherry Creek School District. And another Creek connection: the team’s first president went to my high school. As soon as I heard about all of this, I knew I had to jump on this important story. I worked with our Sports Editor Andrei Machado (a huge soccer fan himself) to interview our athletics director and connect with the mayor of Centennial, Stephanie Piko. I actually had to interview Piko remotely with a terrible flu, but I pushed through and got some great quotes. Together, Andrei and I produced a story about an important development in sports with school connections.
During boys' hockey's 2025 postseason run, I spent a lot of time covering the team, both during the regular season and their march through the playoff bracket. This story is a full photo essay of that run, including their first-round win over their bitterest rivals, and their devastating semifinals defeat in double-overtime. For the semifinals game, I had the chance to work from the press box at Colorado College's Ed Robson Arena. It was a special experience, working alongside professional sports journalists, though the team's loss was undeniably disappointing. The players, even the seniors, were gracious and positive when I got to interview them afterward. I was proud of how the story intertwined visual moments into the narrative. Please read more about the ethics of covering tough losses in the Law, Ethics, & News Literacy tab.
This was an installment in my baseball column, Peanuts and Cracker Jack, but it was a unique one. The topic was “Todd Helton Weekend,” when the Colorado Rockies honored their longtime first baseman, recently elected to the Hall of Fame, and retired his #17. To cover the event, I combined my skills in sports reporting with my personally impassioned perspective as a die-hard Rockies fan. I took my camera to the Saturday night game, knowing Helton’s retired number would be unveiled in center field, and the fanbase would come together to celebrate “The Toddfather.” I quoted the speeches of Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (Helton's longtime friend) and beloved Rockies announcer Ryan Spilborghs (Helton's former teammate). It was a really special night for Colorado, and I got the privilege to write about it, complementing the column with fan’s-eye photos I took from the Coors Field seats. To see more about my Peanuts and Cracker Jack column, see the Op-Eds & Critical Reviews subtab under Reporting & Writing.
Journalists are not cheerleaders. We cannot only report on the games when our school wins. In this case, my school's hockey team was dismantled by their rancorous rivals, Regis Jesuit High School, which made for a dramatic story of gut-wrenching defeat. The game came at a critical time, very close to the postseason. After the game, I had to confront a sour locker room and gather perspectives from players in every position. The players were reluctant to speak, and clearly quite dejected, so I had to make every question count. To complement the story, I created a photo gallery that conveyed action and reaction throughout the game. Sports stories demand quality multimedia, because these stories are visual as well as narrative. To see more about the ethics of covering tough losses, see the Law, Ethics, & News Literacy tab.
This story won Second Place (Breaking Sports Coverage) from CSMA.
OP-EDS & CRITICAL REVIEW
OP-EDS & CRITICAL REVIEW
I loved this show, but it was a challenging review to write. The first season, which I also reviewed in the 2022-23 school year, was far less complex and much easier to follow. But between the attempts to resolve plot lines from season one, and then create and follow new ones, season two was a challenge. It was demanding to watch, and even more demanding to write about, because it was hard to consolidate so much action and suspense into a single review. I'm proud of the writing, though; I think it's one of my best reviews yet. I also really enjoyed making the feature image: a collage of torn paper shreds and digital art, a technique I also used on the Fall 2023 In-Depth feature image on antisemitism.
This op-ed was fueled by a growing sense of burnout and exhaustion during sophomore year, a feeling many can relate to. The source of my struggles was my seven-class schedule: a completely packed load at Creek with lunch as my only off-period. I knew that if I were a reader of the USJ, I would want to see a writer reassure me that it was okay to feel that stress, and it was okay to be under pressure from Creek's intense academic environment. I also wanted my opinion grounded in fact, so I used the education-data website Niche to find credible statistics that allowed me to compare our standardized testing and education requirements to national trends. Remembering how it felt to be an eighth grader was essential for this piece; I recalled the pressure I felt from my social circle to take seven classes, to fit in with the "smart kids."
I knew that Where the Wild Things Are, a treasured picture book from my childhood, was world renowned, but I didn't know it mattered to other Creek students—that is, until I saw people I knew visiting the Denver Art Museum to see a retrospective exhibit of author-illustrator Maurice Sendak’s art. I had already planned to see the exhibit with my family, and I thought it was outstanding, so I decided to review it. This was a fun nostalgia trip and one of the reviews I'm proudest of.
Some of the best op-eds reflect the writers' passions. I have been passionate about World War II aviation since I was an elementary school kid and discovered some documentaries about planes. I looked forward to writing a story about them from the moment I joined the USJ.
I put a lot of time and research into this story, but I also made use of my own knowledge gained from books and documentaries. The core of the story was the touring aviation show that made for one of my most treasured childhood memories. Later, when a string of plane crashes forced that touring show to shut down, I finally had reason to publish this piece—it was a moment when my personal obsession intersected with a story of national importance.
I could not have been alone among Noah Kahan fans in wondering when the rumored and long-teased follow-up to his blockbuster 2022 album Stick Season would finally appear. In October 2025, as the leaves started to fall and Colorado drifted into its own stick season, I decided to mark the album’s third anniversary with a critical review. On one level, this review was an homage to Kahan. His work has made a huge impact on me and others I know, not only with its musicality and lyricism, but also with its themes of struggle, emotional repair, and growing up. But as I wrote, I also explored how musical fame and success—like what Kahan experienced with Stick Season—could turn out to be an anchor rather than a launching pad. I imagined Kahan wrestling with the legacy of his breakout hit as he tried to meet his own (and everyone else’s) high expectations, and I thought about how the characters in his songs labor to get out of their own way. Perhaps he was going through that struggle as he imagined responses to his as-yet-unreleased next album. Ultimately, I asked whether it matters if Kahan matched Stick Season’s success next time. I decided it didn’t, because music can move us no matter how often it appears on TikTok (and, happily, it looks like our Noah Kahan wait is finally over!).
PEANUTS AND CRACKER JACK
PEANUTS AND CRACKER JACK
During my freshman year, I drafted an op-ed called "Baseball: What Should Change and What Shouldn't." To be blunt, it was a mess; it lacked focus and listed so many grievances that it rivaled the Declaration of Independence. My advisor saw my first draft and told me that if I had so many opinions on baseball, I should start a column. So that's what I did. The column has offered opinions, rankings, and insider information about America's Pastime, and it's become my passion project. Though I spend much more time on news coverage, photojournalism, and magazine design, this column has always been a pleasure to come back to. See some of my favorite installments of "Peanuts and Cracker Jack" from all throughout high school below. Click here to see a full archive of the column.
"Peanuts and Cracker Jack" won First Place (Column) from CSMA and Honorable Mention (Blog) from NSPA.
In this story, I discuss the ethics of baseball and how it has become very much wealth- and money-based in recent years. I call out teams like the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their ability to pick seemingly any player they want and sign them off the free agent market. I cite players who had success with small-market teams, then were snatched away by such teams with large bank accounts. Unlike other sports, baseball has no salary cap, and small-market teams have trouble making it to the World Series. As a Rockies fan, this issue is very near to my heart. I was proud of this column because it makes an argument that the MLB really needs to hear right now.
This installment is one of my favorites because it was so fun to write; I got to tell baseball jokes, explore traditions, and generally celebrate all that’s fun about the game. Even more than that, the feature image of me and my sister at our first Rockies game might just be my favorite part. Being able to write about my love of baseball is the true core purpose of "Peanuts and Cracker Jack." This is one of many opportunities to do so.
This is one of my proudest installments of the column yet because I got the chance to write so passionately. I've long argued that baseball should be a permanent sport in the Olympics, and in this article I rebutted all the IOC's claims of why it shouldn't. My argument becomes increasingly intense until I finally make my fiercest point in the last paragraphs. I just wish the IOC could've read it.
"...2025 was a tough year to be a Rockies fan. But for one night, we felt on top of the world.
"For a while, it looked like we really would be the worst in history. We just had to lose fewer than 121 games, a record set by the Chicago White Sox just a year prior. In the final week of regular season baseball, we scratched out the 42nd win on Sept. 19 over the Los Angeles Angels: the last one we needed...Coors Field was electric that night. I saw a spark in the fanbase that I hadn’t seen much since the 2018 playoff run."
Of all of my installments, I’m proudest of this one from last fall. I got the opportunity to blend heartfelt fandom with statistical analysis. When I went to this game with my family, what started out as a forgettable late-season matchup became a memorable experience. The team, its fans, and the energy in Coors Field that night were so inspiring that I went home and immediately started writing. In my mind, personal stories like these sum up why “Peanuts and Cracker Jack” has come to mean so much to me.
Words of Recommendation
Words of Recommendation
"I am the former Director of the Mountain States Region of the Anti-Defamation League. During my tenure, I was frequently interviewed by the media regarding antisemitism and other hateful incidents. It was my privilege to be interviewed multiple times by Peter Philpott. Following one of Peter’s interviews, I remember remarking to a colleague that his preparation and insightful questioning were superior to what I often experienced from professional newspaper, television, and radio reporters. I am certain we will see Peter’s byline for years to come." — Scott Levin, retired ADL Mountain States Director
Having worked with Peter on the News section for the Union Street Journal, it’s obvious he places incredible value on story telling. I could usually tell if a passage was written by him because, while he is precise and succinct in his writing, he includes a unique twist of language that adds color to the story. While he can draw you into an article about trash on campus, he has also demonstrated skill and thoughtfulness in approaching heavier topics. When writing "Gen-Z Shares Fervent Advocacy in the Israel-Hamas War," he was intentional about respecting nuanced and varied student opinions while balancing these with fact. This article is in no small part a product of his respect for interviewees and dedication to inform the school community. I enjoyed working with Peter not only because he is a dedicated, versatile writer, but also because his excitement for reporting fueled my own. His motivation to constantly improve as a journalist is evident through the sheer number of articles he contributes to USJ and his eager requests for feedback. On the flip side, Peter provides his input without harshness, but with real interest in helping make an article the best it can be." —Amanda Castillo-Lopez, former USJ News Editor
Even before attending Cherry Creek High School, Peter was writing for the USJ. His coverage of the school’s theater program [as an eighth-grader] was already outpacing many high schoolers, and he wasn’t even a student yet. As a freshman, he dove headfirst into covering sensitive and vital topics with tenacity and empathy. It became clear very early on that Peter’s care for CCHS and the Denver community spoke through everything he did...As joint Editor-in-Chief this year, he has acted on this commitment by coordinating with his staff to provide meaningful coverage of his community. His dedication to reporting on protests and intentionally connecting national issues to local solutions powerfully represents his love for journalism." —Alex Gribb, former USJ Editor-in-Chief
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