Commitment to Diversity

Personal Life

I am a quite politically active person, and I use that fervor to advocate fair representation every chance I get. My junior year, there was an incident at a school near ours where the administration knew of but chose not to stop a group of students from wearing hateful clothes directed at LGBTQ+ students. I, along with a few others, wrote an open letter to the Department of Education Civil Rights Division calling for a federal investigation into malpractice, which gained statewide media attention (https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/sd-high-school-democrats-call-for-federal-investigation-of-aberdeen-central-high-school). I used my role on the newspaper to bolster attention to the issue by contacting several local journalists and news agencies, which was quite successful. Additionally, I've been involved in many protests for equality and change in the Sioux Falls area. Ultimately, my top priority is to continue educating myself to help myself become a better ally to the BIPOC community, both in and outside of my school.

Newspaper

During my time as Editor-in-Chief of the Statesman, I have emphasized the importance of covering a diverse set of individuals and ensuring fair, accurate and substantive representation for all groups in our publication. To that end, we have featured such clubs as the LHS Gender Sexuality Alliance, the LHS Black Student Union and more. We encourage covering people whom others might not generally know about but who are still very interesting to hear, learn and read about.

I've emphasized that, as a publication, we'd rather feature the people whose stories are generally yet to be heard rather than those whose stories are most known across the school. Furthermore, the Statesman emphasizes the importance of education on various social and political issues in order to better understand their causes and effects plus how we can promote equality and fair representation in our communities. We also frequently discuss global cultures in our issues, such as discussing winter holidays around the world (https://lhsstatesman.com/2020/12/winter-holidays-around-the-world-14626/), in an effort to bolster awareness and equality even more.

When writing each story, we seek to cover less addressed but just as vital angles. I also always encourage staff members to cover such topics as tribal issues and sovereignty, multiculturalism and more. We are presently considering writing a multilingual article or section as well. Ultimately, high school journalism and newspapers must give and be a voice for the students... each and every one of them, regardless of demographic group.