Embedded Files
It was initially a love of writing, of the English language, that brought me to journalism. I was fascinated by stories from a young age, choosing to read novels for fun, and delve into fantasy worlds and murder mysteries during my free time. What piqued my interest was not the magic systems, nor the life-or-death tension, but rather the human condition—the love, the hate, the ugly, the strength, the resilience of humanity. It was the love of reading about people that led me to want to want to write about them, to take a class called Journalism 1, to pick up a reporter's notebook for the first time in freshman year.
To this day, that is what I strive to do: tell human stories.
I approach my journalism two-fold: first, I find the story, and second, I write it. I firmly believe every person has a story to tell, should I take the time to listen. But before I can write those stories, I must first find them.
REPORTING
Reporting has quickly become my favorite part of journalism—connecting with people, understanding their stories, learning about their past. Every interviewee is a locked door, and it's my job to find my way inside.
BRAINSTORMING
This is our brainstorming session for the February Issue of tjTODAY. "WIL" stands for "What I've Learned," a tradition where the back cover of every tjTODAY issue features a student or adult discussing, as the title states, what they have learned from their time at Jefferson.
Approximately once a month, before beginning a print cycle, I sit down with my staff and brainstorm. I begin each session by splitting off each table group, giving time to brainstorm in smaller pairs, for ideas tend to be braver when they have fewer possible sources of judgment. Then, we come back together in a large group and throw everything at the wall. We throw up every idea we have, state every rumor that has been floating around—for if the students at school care enough to talk about it, they care enough to read about it—every person in the community doing something interesting, every who, what, when, where and why that is happening in the school. Everything goes onto the whiteboard in one of six categories: features, sports, cover, opinion, entertainment and sci-tech (we are, after all, a science and technology school).
Every December/January, we publish a themed photo issue, with every feature (save for Lead-Ed) telling a story with just photos and captions.
After we settled on a theme of "lyrics," we brainstormed the stories themselves and what headlines would accompany them.
I keep a running list on the far corner of the board for online articles—not stories that are "unworthy" of being in the print magazine, because I firmly reject the idea that the website is secondary to the print, but stories that would fit an online format better. Ones that would benefit from a quick turn-around, where timeliness outweighs design, and ones that lend themselves to a broader audience of the online website, not just the students and teachers the magazine reaches.
Once brainstorming is complete, I will sit down with my fellow print Editor-in-Chief, Hannah, and our managing editors, to discuss which stories we will cover in the print cycle, and which stories the managing editors will pitch to their staffers for online articles. The only deliberation during these discussions is, in my opinion, the most important one: the audience.
The tjTODAY news magazine is distributed during school hours, typically only reaching Jefferson students, teachers and administration, though they will occasionally trickle into parents' hands. In contrast, the online website tjTODAY.org is home to a much broader scope of readers. Our readers are typically in some way related to Jefferson, yes, but also the greater public. Because Jefferson is a magnet school, and consistently one of the top in the nation, we receive readers from all corners of the United States, and even the world. As such, our coverage ought to be more broad—though we make a point to tie each story back to Jefferson.
Once we come to our conclusions, Hannah and I will sit down to make final decisions. Those stories will then find their home in one of two spreadsheets: the print or the online.
Each issue gets its own spreadsheet that details the stories per spread and who is working on them. As the print cycle progresses, inspiration, interviews and photos make their way into individual folders shared with everyone.
Following the February print issue brainstorm, the online website ideas made their way to the "ideas" portion of the online spreadsheet, where they are easily accessible for staffers and managing editors.
It is important, as the official school publication, to stay up-to-date on all current events within the school, and they often do not fit cleanly into our monthly schedule. Those ideas will also make their way into the online spreadsheet, either by word of mouth or me typing them in. Often, I will send a message to the larger tjTODAY group chat whenever a timely event occurs, inviting staffers to write about them.
Communication is key. This method of brainstorming ensures a broad range of coverage and exposes writers to stories they otherwise might not have come across.
I gravitate toward stories that begin with a question: Why is cheating so rampant and how can we prevent it? How have teachers adjusted to the increasing student population? Why was administration delayed in handing out Letters of Commendation? Why do we say the phrase, "We came for the sports," despite being at a STEM school? Chances are if I want to know the answer, so will my peers.
Once I have a question, I begin to search for the answer.
FINDING SOURCES
In my opinion, the second most important aspect of a story, after the audience, is the sources.
Without a strong source, there is no story.
Over the past four years, I have cultivated a strong group of individuals I trust for different topics. For example, my counselor, Mr. Burke, is always willing to connect me with retired teachers and administration who are relevant to mental health topics; my advisor, Ms. Hampton, is always happy to reach out to her fellow teachers to get an idea of how they feel on certain topics; my friends in different clubs are always considerate enough to put me in contact with students involved in activities I am not. Additionally, more often than not, an interviewee will lead me to my next source.
I also help staffers brainstorm ideas for sources.
While most of my conversations about sources with staffers occur in person, the examples above are two recent instances over text.
I have gotten in contact with people through past interviewees multiple times. The first two emails are from my counselor, Mr. Burke, putting me in contact with teachers and administration who worked at Jefferson prior to me, and the third email is an old alumnus passing on contact information for another Jefferson alumnus. Connections are important to get interviews with diverse sources; this is how I do it.
I also provide resources in the online spreadsheet for staffers to use that can provide a starting off point. One resource I included in the spreadsheet beginning last year was sports coaches' contact information. We often lack coverage in sports, and I made it a point to have clear contacts available in the spreadsheet and through me, not only of coaches, but also captains and players of all grade levels.
This was successful, and I continued providing sports' coaches contact information as the seasons chaged. To the right is a screenshot of a table from last year, during the spring.
Finally, I created the following document as templates for interview requests. It is important to be respectful when asking for an interview, and these templates help staffers have a starting-off point. There is no better feeling for me, as an editor, than hearing someone say they felt like their time was respected by the tjTODAY staff.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Before heading into any interview, I ensure I do accurate research and prepare questions. I believe interviewees can recognize the effort put into preparing for interviews, and I, therefore, get what I put into them.
That being said, I remain flexible during the interview—if I intend to pursue a certain angle and the interviewee opens a new door, I will follow them through it.
These were questions I prepared before interviewing a school psychologist who worked for my school from 1989-2010. Prior research was vital for this interview since I had little to no knowledge of what Jefferson was like at that time.
This was my fourth time interviewing Mr. Forshay, though this specific time was about his former position as Jefferson's activities director. Because this interview was one of the first ones I did for this story, the questions were broad and open-ended. I relied heavily on follow-up questions and ultimately ended with an 18-minute interview.
THE INTERVIEW
Before every interview, I ask for permission to record and for the interviewee to say and spell their first and last name. If given permission, I record the interview using transcription software, but still take notes in my reporter's notebook. This ensures two things: one, the interviewee remembers that this is an interview, not a conversation, and that what they say can be quoted, and two, they trust that I am putting in the effort to tell their story and tell it well. The notebook acts as a guide for me as well, where I can jot down additional questions, ideas for the story and people to interview without having my face buried in a laptop, thus losing the human connection of eye contact during conversation.
My reporter's notebook, which I won at a convention during sophomore year through spin-the-wheel
The second page of notes during my interview with a Jefferson alumnus discussing his experience with mental health and suicide during the 2015-2019 years
Notes from an interview with a teacher who has a passion for mental health, attempting to pinpoint the time and reason why it got out of hand
I do all my interviews in person, when possible, and over a Google Meet when not. Regardless of what form it is, I ensure that I see my interviewee's face, and they see mine. There is something special about face-to-face communication that I fail to get out of just audio.
(Left) Sometimes I conduct virtual interviews over Google Meet in the TJ Media closet, surrounded by equipment and my laptop balanced on a box filled with old magazines.
I always ask tons of follow-up questions. This often results in interviews lasting quite long. (It has gotten to the point where I have two Otter accounts, since I constantly run out of the free 300 minutes given per month.)
At the end of every interview, I ask three questions:
Do you have any last thoughts about this topic that you feel is relevant to share?
What is the best way to reach you should I have any follow-up questions?
Who do you think I should talk to next about this topic who would be willing to do an interview?
The first question gives the interviewee a chance to open the doors of the conversation to a new avenue that I might have missed. Multiple times have I asked this question, and proceeded to continue the interview for 30+ minutes on a topic I would not have otherwise known to ask about. The second question ensures I have their contact information should I need it later in the writing process, and gives them a heads-up that I may return to ask for information. And the third question gives me the opportunity to find more sources. I always write about topics that I am not personally involved in—to avoid bias—and, therefore, often do not have many connections to get sources. This question allows me to ask for people of different circumstance and get into contact with new, diverse sources.
(Left) After interviewing a senior about his experience on the track team and then committing to college for track, the ability to follow up through Messenger allowed me to have a place to send messages. Without the follow-up text asking for data and photos, Power likely would have forgotten.
(Right) Something I love about journalism is its ability to introduce me to new topics and ideas. More often than not, I am writing a story about a concept I used to find boring or a subject I do not understand. In these situations, follow-ups are vital to ensure accuracy. Here, I messaged Lee for help identifying the species of three birds I used in the spread. While I did use outside sources to write my initial captions, having the additional verification from a person who I knew was passionate about birds was important to me.
Every so often, a person will request to read the story before it gets published. I will explain that I will do my very best to do their interview and story justice, and in most scenarios, they are alright with not seeing the article. However, when writing about a sensitive matter, such as mental health, integrity violations or national-level news, I am usually the one reaching out prior to publication, wishing to clarify. I will also ask sources to read my stories prior to publication when the story covers a subject matter I have little to no knowledge of.
In the situation to the left, I was writing a technical story about a senior research project on quantum key distribution (QKD), a topic I hadn't even heard of before picking up the story. After combing through hours of interviews and pages of research, I finally curated a draft that told the story of the four seniors and their research project. However, given that it was a topic I knew so little about, I asked one of the sources to read the article beforehand, and check for scientific errors. In the cases of articles such as these, review prior to publication from sources outside TJ Media is vital to ensuring accurate and insightful reporting.
POST-INTERVIEW
The first thing I do after finishing an interview is blurt. I will take notes on every reflection I have from the interview, and list out plans for what I want to do next. This ensures I get everything down on paper when it is fresh in my mind.
In my experience, the majority of my time is spent reporting, rather than writing. If I have two weeks to publish a story, I will spend 12 days researching, interviewing and fact-checking, and two days writing and revising. If I have a month, I will spend three weeks reporting, and one week drafting and revising. In all news, feature and sports articles, 50% of the article is quotes, and those quotes come from taking the time to do interviews right.
WRITING
With hours of content to peruse and pages upon pages of quotes to review, I slowly but surely cut and edit and draft the article down to a manageable size. From academic cheating to national scandal to underaged gambling, I have developed a sure passion for everything that makes my school unique.
Find all the articles I wrote for tjTODAY here: https://www.tjtoday.org/staff_name/grace-sharma/.
1: NEWS
It is our job as journalists to inform our audience of important, news worthy events—things that are timely and relate to our audience. In my case, the Jefferson community. Writing news can be both incredibly exciting and, at the same time, somewhat boring. The repetitive structure, formulaic approach offers comfort; the subject matter itself is unpredictable. My favorite types of news to write is breaking news: the thrill of having less than 24 hours to get a story out, running back and forth across the school to gather information and interviews. For those few hours, I forget everything but the story, and it is the most enjoyable rush.
Water pipe burst yesterday causes ceiling collapse and Newton hallway to flood
Just a few weeks ago, after the first big snowstorm in Virginia after many years, a ceiling pane collapsed in the hallway outside of my second-period class. Enough water was pouring out that I could have showered comfortably, and it was going consistently for most of the block. Naturally, the second I heard the crash, I began planning to write the story. I conducted interviews throughout the day. I spoke to the director of student activities that lunch period, and interviewed him with no questions prepared. Then, I tracked down a student who was in one of the classrooms that got evacuated. When the article went up the next morning, there were still some people in the school who didn't know what was happening and thanked me for the article.
Supreme Court refuses to review Jefferson’s admission policy
Not every school is so controversial it makes it to the Supreme Court (almost). Jefferson changed its admissions process from a test and an essay to a holistic process with no application fee, just essays and that considered the specific middle school the applicant attended. A group called the Coalition for TJ sued Fairfax County School Board, and the case made it up to the Supreme Court. The Court's decision not to hear the case in last year's docket was a resounding conclusion to the four years of conversation about this topic. To ensure my reporting was accurate, the research portion of prep was vital. My document grew to over 16 pages long, filled with links to legal documents, files and dissents.
If I had the chance to write this story today, I would add an interactive timeline to more clearly break down the order of events. While the writing was accurate and the story trending for many weeks, the visual element of a timeline would be more effective in processing information.
Accident on Braddock Road disrupts Jefferson’s morning commute
I wrote this story with two freshmen staff writers, Mahmoud and Kate. I took this featured image on my iPhone, having driven through the traffic that lined Braddock Road myself. In true journalistic fashion, I knew I would write an article about it. The first class of the day was journalism, and a few of us wandered the halls that block, collecting interviews and attempting to gather information about when the accident occurred. I'd heard from two sources that one staff member, Leo Resquin, had been at the scene of the accident right after it occurred and helped the people in the car. I did not know who Resquin was, my advisor was in her meetings and I had a self-inflicted deadline to meet. That 8th period, I walked around the school asking every person I knew where to find Resquin. Eventually, I came across Forshay, who I'd interviewed about sports and Homecoming Week multiple times. He was able to point me in the direction of Resquin's office, and we got the interview.
Students across Virginia protest transgender model policies
This was the first walkout I covered on my own—I previously wrote about one during freshman year alongside one an Editors-in-Chief, where I wrote the majority of the article and she conducted a majority of the interviews—and this was also my first experience interviewing people during the event that is taking place. I walked from person to person during the walkout to ask them about why they were there and what was going on. Over the course of the next two days, I researched the model policies that were being protested against and became familiar with the poorly constructed back ends of government websites. The article was published within 24 hours of the event happening and also marked my first experience with multimedia in an article.
Whether the story ends up at the length of a full-length story or the 200 words of a news brief, here are ten more examples of news coverage about my school. Within the first row, of 400+ word new stories, I wrote four of the five of them by myself—I wrote "Jefferson students hold walkout to protest gun violence" with a print EIC, Annika, who conducted most of the interviews. I wrote most of the article by myself and completed it together with her; Annika compiled the additional photos and wrote the captions for them. The second row of stories are news briefs, which are shorter but, in my experience, one of the most effective ways to get information across to an audience.
2: FEATURES
It should come as no surprise that features are my favorite category of article—the inherent focus on understanding the why and how of a story fascinates me. Every feature starts as a question, for if there is something I'm wondering about there are surely other people wondering it as well. I treat each feature I write as an investigation. I want to peel back the curtains of each story I write and tell what's beneath the surface.
Full Capacity
The first class to be admitted under the new admissions policy was Class of 2025 during 2021. Four years later, Class of 2025 now seniors, this year marked the first where all four classes were admitted under the new policy, and at the larger class capacity. I asked myself what the underlying impacts of that increase in population size were. After multiple hour-long interviews with teachers and administration who had been at Jefferson for many years, I learned that this wasn't the first time there was a spike in student population, and each time it happens there are ultimate cuts that impact what the students have access to. I found another story that's worth telling, the fact that classes got so big some teachers no longer had their own rooms, carting their stuff across the school for each class and setting up in the break room for their planning period. This was the cover story for the October 2024 print issue.
Under lock & key
Every senior at Jefferson participates in a research project in a STEM field of their choosing. This was an article I wrote about a group of four students who were researching quantum key distribution (QKD) to assist with encrypting and decrypting data. As a junior at the time, I had a basic understanding of some physics concepts but absolutely no understanding of quantum. The process of interviewing and researching for this article was very different than the rest of the features I've ever written—I had to understand their project in order to explain it, which meant I had mere weeks to develop a novice-level understanding of one of the most complex sciences today. My interviews with each person on the team lasted for hours, and I had constant follow-ups with them while drafting this article. This article showed me that I can write about things that I don't understand and people are always willing to help should you reach out and ask.
The Inside of Integrity
This article was my introduction into investigative journalism and writing about multi-faceted topics. My co-writer, Keertana, and I interviewed each person together during the initial stages of the reporting, gathering over 10 interviews with students and teachers. I then cut down those 20 pages of quotes to 10, resulting in 5,000 words worth of good quotes by the end. The first draft of the article I wrote ended up being slightly over 3,000 words, all meant to fit in a three-spread layout. Through multiple rounds of self-editing, I cut down the article to 1,500 words, and we worked together to fit it to the last 1,300. The process of reporting for this story reminded me why I loved journalism in the first place—connecting with a person on a deeper level to tell their story to the best of my ability. I had multiple people I interviewed during the process of writing this article—some of whom didn't make it into the published story—speak with me about the finished piece.
Works from dozens of artists at downtown gallery
I wrote this story during my summer at the Medill Northwestern Journalism Institute, and got it published in Evanston Now. This story was an exercise in approaching people to interview—for the first time, I didn't have the background of reaching out on Messenger or Instagram to schedule an interview, nor a tjTODAY pass to give myself some credibility. It took time, but I slowly grew out of my shell and got better at asking strangers for interviews. Returning to my high school after a summer of writing stories about strangers gave me a much-needed confidence boost, and I am more comfortable interviewing now than ever before.
Additionally writing this story about a business was a first experience for me. An editor at Evanston Now brought to my attention the difference between purchasing property and renting it from a property management company—I clarified it by stopping by the store again to do a follow-up, but I learned to ask clarifying questions for everything in the initial interview, no matter how seemingly small of a question it may be.
p8-9.pdfThis is a PDF of the spread that went to print.
Dear dad
This feature was published exclusively in print and was not available online due to internal publication problems with the platform we use to publish the print magazines online.
The story was a part of a special issue on family, and this story specifically featured students who had lost family members, ultimately covering two individuals who both lost their fathers. This story taught me how to interview about sensitive topics and the power that silence plays in an interview. These two conversations were the longest interviews I'd had until this point, and that time was spent to ensure we did these stories justice.
Here are ten more features I wrote on tjTODAY. Eight of these (top row and first three in bottom row) articles I wrote by myself, and two I wrote in collaboration with someone else. I worked on "Changemakers" with my co-EIC, Hannah—I conducted all the interviews for this article and wrote all of the story but the final section. I worked on "Ramadan at Jefferson" with print EIC at the time, Anya—I wrote the sections "One day at a time," "Lessons learned from others" and "Ramadan and sports." Additionally, "Lightning in a bottle," was one of the many articles I wrote while on the principal beat—every month, I would interview the principal, Dr. Bonitatibus, and write an article about certain events or goals the administration had.
3: OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
Opinions were always the hardest articles for me to write, so it's a wonder I've accumulated such a broad portfolio of them over the past four years. I find editorials much more comfortable, as they all begin with a staff-wide conversation that I can pull ideas from. Just as there is strength in objectivity and avoiding editorializing for news and features, there is strength in numbers when I write an editorial that represents the opinion of the whole staff, not just me. That being said, I still challenge myself to write both.
Student perspective on the TJHSST “War on Merit” debate
This piece was one of the most informative experiences of my journalism career thus far. Our school made national headlines for supposedly "waging a war on merit" through the delay in the distribution of National Merit Scholarship Corporation letters of commendation, leading to extreme criticism from across the nation. I knew I wanted to cover this and cover it well. After a nearly five-hour interview with the woman who broke the news about the alleged "war on merit" as well as dozens of rounds of edits, self-assigned or with my advisor, the editorial was published. We received both praise and criticism on this editorial, and it was the most controversial thing I'd written thus far. This experience taught me the true importance of journalism and integrity, as well as how important our role as a newspaper was to the Jefferson community.
The Erosion of Trust
Covering politics is always a point of contention within our staff—at a school that tends to follow one political ideology and a population of students who (mostly) cannot vote, finding interesting angles that don't just follow one person's individual activism is difficult. This was made even more apparent during the brainstorming session for the 2024 November political issue, where we wanted each story to be somewhat related to politics or elections. "The Erosion of Trust" was our lead editorial for that issue, and I wrote it with the intention of answering the following question: Why should I still care about politics in today's backdrop of extreme polarization and misinformation?
Testing: the math isn't mathing
This article was born out of a heated conversation I had with a fellow staff writer and close friend. We discussed the unfair nature of the distribution of points within the math grade book, placing a beyond extreme weight on exam scores over homework and notes packets—which were each over 20 pages long. The first draft of this article was a rant, far from the actual structure of an opinion article, and through the course of self-editing, I was able to look at it with an objective lens and find evidence to support my arguments.
Young adult books: overlooked
I'd felt that young adult literature was deemed childish and not "worthy" literature for a long time. Through conversations with a librarian at my school, I decided to write on that topic for my opinion assignment. Some of the best and most insightful and introspective books I've ever read are in YA.
The first three stories below are staff editorials and the last two are opinion pieces.
4: ENTERTAINMENT
I was never taught how to write entertainment articles, just told to review it and look at examples previously published on the website. That didn't stop me from writing reviews on my favorite pieces of entertainment.
Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ is dark pop perfection
I'm not sure what it was about this specific album, but the day after Taylor Swift released "Midnights," dozens of my friends, teachers and peers were talking about this album and asking if I'd heard it yet. I knew that a good amount of people would be interested in reading this article, so that night, I listened to the album and wrote a review.
‘Purple Hearts’ is popular but problematic
Up until this point, all my entertainment articles were covering books, movies, shows and music that I enjoyed. I'd yet to write a critical entertainment article until this point, and this piece was an exercise in my craft as a journalist to keep the review balanced while still giving my personal opinion. I had two conversations after publishing this article—one with my advisor and one with a friend—who had heard similar things about this film.
Here are five more entertainment articles I wrote.
5: SPORTS
Because Jefferson is a STEM school, sports coverage often gets shoved aside in favor of science stories or acadmic articles. As an editor for three years, I've done my best to push back against this notion—sports at Jefferson has as much of a right to equal coverage as other topics.
We came for the sports
This article was four months in the making, something I began working on at the beginning of October 2024. Beginning this piece was my personal answer to hearing the comment that "sports suck" at our school. I instantly defended the athletics department, thinking of my friends who have dedicated hours of their lives per day to a sport. I realized after that conversation in junior year that there, indeed, was a lack of sports coverage—proportional to other types of articles on the website. I began this story by interviewing athletes about the biggest struggles they've had to overcome in their sport, determined to show the tenacity of athletes are Jefferson. That morphed into this article about how the athletics department recovered from the pandemic and is now stronger than ever.
I will be the first to admit I don't know much about sports. It took me two yeras to barely begin to understand how swim meets work, let alone the inticracies of the strategy of a football or basketball game. That being said, I still found way to cover sports at Jefferson. Here are four examples.
Reporting has grown to be my favorite part of journalism, but writing was what drew me to this field in the first place. I do my best to honor the subjects of my stories by telling them accurately and honestly.
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