Web-Exclusives
Stories that are only published to the website fulfill two unique purposes that print ones often don’t: timeliness and multimedia. As an editor, these are elements I prioritize in each story I edit and as a writer, they are ones I strive to fulfill. However, as with any story, accuracy and balance remain at the forefront of every piece I publish.
Event Coverage: CCSD hosts Mental Health Town Hall
This was my first time writing an event coverage and my first time doing on the spot interviews in a while, so I was proud of the final product, especially considering I managed to get it published less than 24 hours after. The event was a town hall hosted by the district regarding mental health resources, and I tried to get a variety of voices in the story, interviewing the moderator of the event as well as two audience members and pulling quotes from what the panelists had said during the panel. Since there were so many facets to the topic, I also used the remaining quotes from the discussion to put together a graphic of questions and answers from the night.
Review: "Sunrise on the Reaping"
I’ve been a longtime fan of the “Hunger Games” so it was interesting for me to write this review in a way that would make sense to those unfamiliar with the series while also appealing to those who knew about it. However, by including an infographic on the ordering of the series, I felt I was able to spend a lot less time writing about the backstory of everything that had come before this book. Timeliness was important to me with this story and I was able to get it posted within less than a week of the novel being published.
Breaking news: CCSD announces CCHS 2025 Teacher, Support Professional of the Year
This was a story I had to be extremely timely with. Within an hour of the press release being sent out, I had interview requests out to both winners and was able to quickly get quotes over email. From there, it was only a matter of writing the story, which was fairly straightforward once I had the quotes I needed. I also updated a timeline I had made the year before for the same story and included that.
Mythology students to explore Expedition: Bigfoot!
This story, one about Mythology students taking a field trip to a nearby Bigfoot museum, was engaging enough in the fact that it talked about Bigfoot poop and sightings of the mythological creature. However, I tried to illustrate that by not only structuring the story in a way that balanced basic information with shock-value but also by including a gallery of photos the teacher of the class had sent me from a past trip.
Students to attend UGA Theatre Department’s adaptation of famous play
This story was about a field trip some students were taking to see a play put on by University of Georgia students. I had a relatively tight turnaround on getting this story published to remain timely, so it took a lot of effort to make sure I was writing the story quickly enough, but also with enough attention to detail that everything was accurate and clear, which another editor helped with a lot. I also included a video clip from my interview with the coordinator of the field trip in the story since word count hadn’t let me include all the quotes I wanted to, so doing this allowed me to give a little more background.
Five notable moments in LGBTQ+ History
I originally wrote this story, which was made up of five blurbs about notable events in LGBTQ+ history, to be made into an interactive Canva slideshow. However, even after going through edits and slimming down on word count as much as possible, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to fit each blurb onto one slide. So, I decided to just design it in WordPress when I posted. I worked with then-Graphic Designer Kimberly Sanabria-Amaya to have her illustrate each section and then combined everything together in a way that was still engaging.
Working with Work-Based Learning
As one of the first stories I wrote during my sophomore year, I was pleasantly surprised at how this news brief about the experience-based internship program at my school turned out. I had a really good interview with the coordinator and tried my best to not let that go to waste since I was working with a limited word count. Ultimately, I was able to bring her voice in and provide more information to interested students by including graphics with requirements of the program, something I touched on in the story but wasn’t able to fully talk about.
Advancing artists
The interview for this Q&A was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. It was with the program coordinator for a teen art program at a local art museum and I got a lot of really good answers from him. I spent some time cutting down his responses to an acceptable length and asked him for pictures of his art to use in multimedia and bring in engagement that way. I also prioritized keeping the parts where he discussed his childhood experience with art and his advice to young artists, which helped maintain the relevance of the story.
Breaking news: Class of 2025 top students named
Timeliness and multimedia were both essential parts of this story. The press release from the district helped, since I was able to pull a couple quotes from there. From there, I was also able to get quotes from teachers and coaches who knew the students fairly quickly. For multimedia, I compiled photos we had of the valedictorian from past achievements and embedded an Instagram carousel the iliad had done on the salutatorian, doing my best to keep the coverage between the two balanced. I also made a timeline of past honorees.
Event Preview: CCHS Open House
We had done a preview of this event in past years, so I went into writing this not wanting my story to be an exact replica of those. In interviewing, I tried to go deeper than the traditional questions of “Why is this event important” but also ask about things like safety and how it’s changed over the years. I also got an A-Roll of one of my interviews to bring in as multimedia to make it more engaging and offer information in a different way.
