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Vol. 89 Issue 3 - Sept. 20, 2016In my very first piece of published work, I explored the unexpected value I found in playing a high school sport.
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Vol. 89 Issue 7 - Oct. 19, 2016My first food review on the Detroit pop-up Blu Kitchen Macarons. This article introduced me to my love of review writing and knack for relaying personal stories to enhance my opinion writing. I received an honorable mention during the 2017 MIPA Spring Conference for this piece.
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Vol. 89 Issue 11 - Nov. 16, 2016I wanted to write and photograph a story on vintage fashion because it's something I am passionate about. I have always been pleased with this piece as an example of both my writing and photography.
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Vol. 89 Issue 12 - Dec. 8, 2016During my first semester on staff, I was very nervous about setting up and conducting interviews. Pushing myself to do more interviews was my main goal for second semester. This brief was my first step toward that goal.
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The Tower Pulse - Jan. 26, 2017Another review! In my review of Hidden Figures, I discussed the value of the film and the history behind it rather than just a plot summary and how much I liked it. I think this piece is a great example of my personal approach to review writing.
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Vol. 89 Issue 19 - March 15, 2017This piece is one of my first feature stories, and one that I am still proud of after three years on The Tower staff. By developing an angle and preparing questions in advance, I conducted successful interviews with very knowledgeable sources. Being prepared made me less nervous and the story more professional.
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Vol. 89 Issue 22 - Apr. 19, 2017For this collection, I focused on featuring places readers wouldn't already know a lot about, but would be interesting for students. Writing these brief reviews was challenging and fun, which made them interesting to read. My success with pieces like this is what lead me to apply for Entertainment Editor my sophomore year.
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Vol. 89 Issue 22 - Apr. 19, 2017As part of my goal to write more stories that require interviews, I took on this news story about AP testing. While my three sources were all AP students, I learned that a more diverse group of sources, including teachers and students not taking AP exams, would be beneficial in later pieces.
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Vol. 89 Issue 23 - April 26, 2017Co-writing this in-depth feature was a super valuable experience that came at the end of my first year on staff. Water pollution is an issue close to me and many people in the Metro-Detroit area, which made this feature interesting to write on a personal level. Local organization Save Lake St. Clair shared our piece on their Facebook page, and it was exciting to see responses (both negative and positive) from readers all over Michigan.
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Vol. 90 Issue 5 - Oct. 12, 2017I am very pleased with the progress this piece shows compared to the news and feature writing I was doing the year before. Veganism has become a huge trend, especially with young people, so getting to educate readers and learn more about it made this piece very fun to write.
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Vol. 90 Issue 7 - Oct. 25, 2017While I was making sure to challenge myself as a reporter, I still enjoyed review writing. As the Entertainment Editor during my junior year, it was important to me to continue working on review pieces because it encouraged others to try them too. I think the photography, video or interactive element of a review is often overlooked, so including photos was really important to me. I received an Honorable Mention for this piece at the 2018 MIPA Spring Convention.
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Vol. 90 Issue 12 - Dec. 13, 2017I decided to get very personal in this personal narrative on something that happened in my family. While I was writing it, I felt that it was very important to share takeaways and a message, not just my experience. I think that opening up and allowing myself to be vulnerable in this piece is what made it powerful.
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Vol. 90 Issue 16 - Feb. 7, 2018This feature is one of my personal favorites from my time on staff. I am proud of the sources, quotes and length of the piece. I think this article shows how much I'd learned about feature writing.
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Vol. 90 Issue 5 - March 7, 2018I think this is an important piece because it tells the reader a lot about the who, what and where, but focuses on the why. I am proud of this piece because it told the reader more about the event than when and where it would happen.
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Vol. 90 Issue 23 - May 2, 2018I included this feature because it tells a story with words as well as with photos. I enjoyed double by-lining this story, and I think that having two people's perspective contributing to interviews and photography really added to the story overall. This page features photos from a photo story published in an earlier issue for which we won a first place award at the 2018 MIPA spring conference.
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Vol. 91 Issue 4 - Oct. 3, 2018Before we published our in-depth feature, we wanted to publish this brief to give readers some background on the story, and give us some more time to contact a few more sources. This brief focused on the fact that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had been removed from our curriculum and how students reacted to that happening.
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Vol. 91 Issue 5 - Oct. 11, 2018To challenge myself, one of my goals this year was to try new types of stories, so editorials seemed like a good place to start. I knew a lot about the subject because of the in-depth I was working at the time, so I used my knowledge from that piece to enhance this editorial. I'm proud of my work and the Editorial Board for taking this stance.
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Vol. 91 Issue 5 - Oct. 11, 2018Working on this in-depth piece with Adrian D., who is the Supervising Editor at Large on Tower, was a great experience. I always enjoy double by-lining because I learn so much from the people I work with and I feel that two perspectives can add so much to a story. We interviewed administration for this story, which was a new experience for me, but I didn't feel nervous about it at all.
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Vol. 91 Issue 7 - Oct. 24, 2018In November, Grosse Pointers got to vote on a bond for renovations in the school system. As a 17-year-old, I was so grateful to have a platform which allowed me to "cast my vote" in a different way, by sharing my experience as a student with our community. Online, the slideshow showed readers concrete evidence of what I was talking about, which made the article even more powerful.
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Vol. 91 Issue 12 - Dec. 12, 2018Working on the Huck Finn in-depth at the beginning of the year really got me interested in reporting on bigger issues. I thought double by-lining this piece would be a good idea, but I ended up doing the interviews and most of the writing on my own, which I was proud of. Talking to a lot of district and school board officials made me appreciate all the hard work The Tower has done to establish trust and respect with our sources.
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Vol. 91 Issue 19 - March 13, 2019This story was challenging for me to write becuase it required a lot of expert sources. I learned a lot by talking to local sources, but it was hard to find people who were super knowledgeable on the topic. For a lot of the questions I asked the sources didn't give the kind of responces I expected. It was a good challenge for sure.
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