Embedded Files
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 re-emerging 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 Jan. 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.
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