COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
Let's get real here. The area that my school and I are located in are not known for being the most diverse, in any way. And yet, despite stereotypes and expectations, there is still so much diversity. We just have to find it.
In My Reporting
I haven't had just one approach to diversity in my work.
In my own reporting, I've made an effort to emphasize more women in sports instead of the typical male sports stories, and even just rarely-covered sports teams, from equestrian to wrestling.
I've tried to cover a variety of different groups and cultures from different places, from skater culture to the National Chinese Honor Society and French exchange students.
I've helped cover and promote special needs students, such as advertising Unified's kickball season schedule.
In February 2022, I reported on controversies with the local school board related to diversity, as the newly-elected majority board members voted to change the district's equity and inclusion policies.
As Editor-in-Chief, when uploading stories onto our website, I fill out photo descriptions to help with web accessibility.
Above all, I've taught and led my students to do the best they can in also including diversity in their reporting.
The night before, a teacher messaged me, making me aware that school would soon be cancelled, teachers across the district all called out sick. The moment I heard, I knew it was a story I needed to get on. While others spent the day off sledding or relaxing, I spent hours capturing the story over the thousands of community members protesting decisions made by the school board in below-freezing temperatures.
Following the teacher sick-out and community protest, students organized an in-school walkout. I willingly missed class to follow the protestors, take photos and interview them, sharing their story.
As one of my first pieces, I explored the skater culture in the area. This was outside of my comfort zone at the time, as I interviewed people who were very different from me about their lifestyles and skating's history.
Highlighting cultures across the school, I interviewed students that competed in a national French competition. I shared information on both the contest and results, and the students' passions for French and their cultures.
Made to be a quick-hit, I worked with other staffers to put together a season schedule for the Unified kickball team. This helped advertise their games and gave students the information needed to go support them.
In Others' Reporting
When working with my staff, I always try to remind them about diversity, but that means many things.
That means interviewing people you don't know instead of the same friends and classmates.
It means helping staffers plan coverage of holidays I'm unfamiliar with, such as Diwali, and controversies. For example, I am currently working with a person of color on staff to express her opinion on the use of the N-word in school, and have been working with multiple students on covering Unified basketball games and other activities.
Although I did not produce the content in this story, I mentored the staffers working on it. With my help, we figured out how to write about students using correct policies and terms and make sure their voices were heard.
On Our Staff
Our staff looks different every year. We allow people of all types, backgrounds and skills onto our staff with no judgment.
Over the years, I've worked with many special needs students who shared my passion for journalism. While this did mean occasionally adjusting requirements or how we approached things such as interviews, great content was always produced. I'm proud to announce that one of my staffers that I've worked side by side with for the past two years is making school history this year by being the first Rock Canyon special needs student to be inducted into Quill & Scroll International Honorary Society and receive a cord for his work in journalism.
While boys aren't typically the group people may think of when they think of diversity, it's an area where our staff has become more diverse. Newspaper and yearbook have often been regarded as girly classes, and typically are majority female and female-led. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with that, but by increasing the number of boys on our staff, we increased our diversity through new perspectives and more variation between each staffer.
Overall, I've tried to encourage diversity, both on the staff and in their reporting. Because of this, our staff is now composed of all types of students. From athletes to artists, rookie reporters to experienced journalists, with varying grades, beliefs, races and sexualities of all types, our staff's wide assortment fosters diverse reporting and perspectives.