A deep understanding of the journalistic code of ethics has shaped the way I write about conflict. I've always made sure to interview both sides of the story I'm covering, but this article in particular was difficult to write from an unbiased perspective since the closest quote I could get to a comment was pulled from a public statement. I interviewed students from the two schools within my district to hone in on how this choice affected our local community as well as scrolled through endless comments on an online petition. After hours of searching for positive comments to balance out my article, I came up empty-handed. If I were to go back and write this article for a second time, I would place more emphasis on securing interviews with the Head of ECA and any other administrators. Starting high school journalism during the pandemic meant that in-person interviews were still rather foreign to me, but I wish I had pushed myself to reach out to more sources that could explain why this decision had been made.

I am probably the least athletic person I know. My complete lack of hand-eye coordination and inability to identify a singular play in any sport ever makes for a really knowledgable person in the sports world. I successfully avoided writing about anything sports-related up until my senior year of high school, where I finally forced myself out of my comfort zone and wrote about sports. In addition to filling in for the usual multitudes of sports articles (which had mysteriously disappeared this past year), I knew I needed to learn to cover sports so I could edit that category's articles effectively. I'm proud of this article for not only lending itself to a gorgeous layout design, but for helping me to get more comfortable asking questions about unfamiliar topics. I researched until I knew enough to enter interviews with recruits, but even during interviews, I made myself pause and ask for clarification when I didn't understand something. My stubborn, never-admits-when-she-doesn't-know-something nature took a backseat while writing this article and has stayed there since, helping me to be a better listener during conversation.

(sample layout, I ended up changing the header to better reflect the content of this article)

This article is, to this day, my favorite article I've ever written. It's not the flashiest trend or the hottest scandal, but this article showed me how important storytelling can be. After this article was published, Jack's mom approached me after a choir concert and thanked my co-writer Connor and I for sharing Jack's story. I remember blinking away tears as she explained how grateful she was that his message was finally being spread, as he's not super forthcoming about his journey. Seeing how something I was a part of could make a real, tangible, emotional impact on somebody else was truly the most humbling experience of my journalism career.

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