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We must prove that we are worthy of the community's trust.
We must prove that we are worthy of the community's trust.
44. That is how many people are listed as staff members on our website as of February 2026. Our staff has grown to be almost double as it was in 2022-2023 when I started, and our staffers come from all parts of the school—united by a love for storytelling and the meeting candy bowl.
By gaining all of these members, our pitch sheet has swelled in ideas, and we’ve been able to cover stories that few people know about, from students who are painting murals at pool clubs to the vandalism of a rainbow crosswalk in one of our towns.
Respect, compassion, and dignity are the qualities that revise the stereotype of the rudely invasive journalist, and these are the qualities I learned while covering topics I initially knew nothing about. Covering diverse topics means we must earn trust, which has to be established before we even press play on the recording button.
Our school is 72.81% white. As someone who isn’t, I know the importance of having a cultural community to rely on to prevent isolation. The Black Student Union, or BSU, was only a couple meetings into their first year, and the goal of my article was to give it enough coverage to encourage more students to come to their meetings.
I sat in on one of their Monday meetings, and watched students slowly trickle in. They talked about microaggressions for this meeting, too—lollipops for participation. There also was a strong emphasis on the lack of education on African-American history, which ended up being a major angle for my article. I learned by listening, and it taught me how important it is to be physically present when hearing stories that people aren’t always comfortable talking about outside of a safe space.
NOV 24—Featured club BSU.pdfRecruiting and retaining staff members
Recruiting and retaining staff members
In the past, our paper was less of a team; we bled members constantly as a result. We struggled to train new staffers during meetings while avoiding redundancy for experienced staffers. It meant we had a limited pool of perspectives that were contributing, which prevented us from really getting the diversity of voice we strive for.
We began to do more focused summer and fall training sessions outside of our staff meetings to catch up new staffers. That way, our actual meetings could be focused on team-building, with breakout groups that encourage every staffer to bring their unique background to our pitch sheet.
Click the image to see our staff page.
...but what does it mean to have diversity of voice in a staff?
...but what does it mean to have diversity of voice in a staff?
When it comes to diversity of voice, we really do mean everyone, not just the people that writing comes naturally for. Coaching Kathleen, which I talk more about in the leadership section, didn't come easy at first because of the language barrier — she's an English Language Learner.
After we wrote the story on the counselors together, we worked together again to do a story on course registration. She's a bit shy, so before we had a major interview for this course registration story, I sat down with her to do a practice interview. We talked about why it was important to make eye contact and project your voice. I had never heard her speak so loudly, and I was so proud when that practice paid off during the real interview. We worked with her ESL instructor so that the confidence she was building in Panther Press would be compounded upon in her other lessons.
Having a diverse staff means that the only barrier to join should be how passionate you are about telling stories.
FEBRUARY-COURSE REGISTRATION.pdfCoverage Log
Coverage Log
The coverage log is how we track the amount of times we've interviewed a certain source. So far this year, 11.89% people have been sourced at least once.
So how do we take those statistics and act on them? We've made a point to encourage students this year to not just interview the people who are comfortable because they are close.
We also call out people who have been sourced frequently during our meetings so our staffers know who to reconsider interviewing.
Sometimes, it's inevitable that we would interview the tennis captain for a story about tennis senior night—but there's no reason that you can't find someone else for a story on academic pressure. This coverage log keeps us accountable, steering us away from complacency in our sourcing.
2025-2026 COVERAGE AUDIT - BLURRED.pdfThis is one of my favorite introductions I've written. The first sentence has the standard 5Ws, but after that, it’s a descriptive lede. In stories about diversity, it’s easy to ignore the significance of the problem if you feel removed from the situation. I usually refrain from using the second person in articles, yet it felt right for this one. After all, the lack of pads and tampons in the bathroom affects half of our student body, many of whom have experienced the exact situation of the lede.
To make people care about diversity and inclusion, we have to highlight the problem, sometimes uncomfortably so—and writing about menstrual products was certainly uncomfortable at first. Yet, that’s why it’s so important to talk about it. Journalism helps to erase stigmas by communicating universal struggles.
DEC 23—Menstrual prducts.pdfPage updated
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