Yolanda Feng

UWP 1Y

From Lacking Student to Strong-Willed Journalist: Developing Media Literacy

Panic traveled throughout my body as I called the Chief Operating Officer of The
Mosaic Project, an organization that provides community building skill training.
Following a greeting from the other end of the call, I swallowed hard as I searched for
words to say. As a teenager who had doubtful thoughts and a lot to learn, I sometimes
struggled with how to deal with certain social situations and communicate with authority
figures. However, this call was necessary to gather vital information for an opinion-
editorial (op-ed) I was working on. It was regarding issues of the diversity training
professional development (PD) program for teachers at my high school during that time.
Despite the small setback of not being able to acquire most of the knowledge that would
provide answers to my questions regarding the op-ed topic from that call, I was able to
work off the ground with the material that I was able to get.

The controversial PD training op-ed was my first large project after previously
covering several sports and news stories. The six-month preparation for this piece
consisted of numerous deadlines; interviews with the principal, vice principals, and
administrators of various programs; and research on costs of the program and opinions
of participants. This was also the first time my writing represented a strong opinion of
my high school’s official student-run publication, The Lowell, to be read by a large
audience. I wasn’t someone who liked to strongly express their stance or opinion in
public, and my social anxiety would get in the way of most if not all of my actions. The
period of time I spent working on this story was one of my hardest moments in high
school.

While this project was primarily done during my junior year of high school, I joined
Journalism during my sophomore year. Attending a large competitive high school made
me feel very small and even useless at times. My attempt to turn my fears into fuel
generated a desire to prove my capabilities and let go of the past bullying and negative
experiences I endured in middle school. At first, I feared and was hindered from joining
the many activities I had an interest in because of insecurities about my speaking skills
and physical image. But deep inside me, I still knew I would one day be able to push
through this barrier and that had to do something about these “flaws” in order to work
towards a better me, improve in various social aspects, and explore the different career
options out in the world to hopefully find one that I can thrive in. As a way to fight my
anxiety, I joined my school’s Journalism team, that focuses on school-related news,
investigative features that delve into social issues, as well as lighter topics such as
student accomplishments and fashion look books, in hopes of improving my social and
writing skills while contributing to an impressive student publication. I signed up without
knowing exactly what I was getting myself into.

An animated representation of myself, sitting in front of a computer and working all day. As a reporter and editor, I
spent countless hours working on Journalism tasks  from designing page layouts to overseeing stories all the way
until their publish-able state. | Animation by Gun Karlsson

As an amateur reporter, I didn’t know much about the responsibilities and didn’t
know what to expect a day to be like in the news publication. Despite having taken an
introduction class that provided practice and explanations of some types of articles such
as a profile, column, and news story, I still didn’t feel ready. The multi-door Journalism
room had a few iMacs, a new laptop cart, professional DSLR cameras, and other
exciting tools for the staff to use for projects. There were several tables and even a
square island in the middle of one of the rooms. None of the staff at the time knew of
me, but they already had certain expectations that I would be able to deliver the stories
that were assigned to me. The actual Journalism staff seemed immensely capable,
highly creative, and very experienced, while I felt small, incompetent, and lacking.
However, I didn’t let my intimidations bring myself to back out of the activity.

My first story was on the delay in the completion of my school’s polyurethane track
construction. This new track would provide space for sports teams’ practices, for PE
students to exercise, and to hold some school-wide events, so frustration and
disappointment in the failure to finish the construction prior to the start of the school
year were understandable. Since the delay affected various logistics and events, I had
to gather information from many different sources. This meant interviewing sources that
were connected to the project, which included my school’s assistant principal of Building
and Grounds, the project construction managers, the PE department head, and the
student activity advisor, which pushed me completely out of my comfort zone. On top of
being someone who didn’t regularly talk to professionals, I was a very self-conscious,
worrisome, and socially anxious person.

In addition to still being unfamiliar with and fairly new to reporting, I quickly realized
that being on a journalism team was completely different than doing homework for a
class. I was slightly shocked at the sudden jump in expectations from my editor, a
student, in comparison to my previous teacher. I was reminded that the publication is
student-run and that this story isn’t a typical homework assignment. Despite taking the
story very seriously, I had trouble meeting my own deadlines because I still wasn’t
confident in my writing nor satisfied with my word choice. I had to learn to write in using
the language and tone for journalism, The Lowell style guide and effectively
communicate with my editors and peers. Nonetheless, finishing and publishing this story
gave me more experience for future stories. I felt relieved and proud of myself, however
only for a short period of time.

Warning sign that states due dates are closer than they appear. Deadlines always seemed to approach too quickly
and the pressure to complete the assignments by the due dates produced significant amounts of stress. | Image
taken from Teacher Supply Source

The next big project I worked on was the op-ed for the PD training program. Fully
committing to this project put a lot of pressure on me and really tested my ability to
balance school work while working on my extracurriculars. With my lack of experience,
the writing level was difficult for me. I didn’t know how to proceed with the little
information I acquired. I wasn’t able to productively complete my work. I was pulling
consecutive all-nighters and was so stressed out that I had a few breakdowns. Even my
mom attempted to persuade me to quit. I felt so useless and incapable. It seemed as if
everything was against me. The workload from my classes and my editors’ expectations
from me only grew as time went on. My advisor and editors wanted to see progress and
development in the story. However, my sleep deprivation led to inefficient work and
eventually a cycle that took a toll on my health. Juggling all these tasks kept building up
my fear of crashing.

However, I had developed a stubborn mindset and refused to give up or let the
Journalism team down. My huge lack in writing ability set me at a disadvantage and no
one knew how much I struggled. Even when I had migraines and breakdowns, I pushed
myself to make progress on it every day. A quote by Charlie Wardle that helped me get
through some nights was, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking
because her trust is not on the branch but on its own wings.” In order to complete the
edits and given tasks by the next day, when all my friends and family members were
sleeping, I often forced myself through long nights of working alone. With the load that I
had, I realized if no one would believe in me, I had to believe in and rely on myself to
get the job done. And I did. The op-ed was printed in the February 2017 print issue.
Although I would have felt so much better if I received support from my family and
friends, I developed persistence, became more determined, and grew headstrong.
These were traits that I previously wouldn’t have used as strongly to describe myself.

Completing this story never felt so rewarding and relieving, as I felt like I had to
manage so many different things at once and still accomplished something. Additionally,
I was awarded the Vicki Chin Writing Award alongside my editor for this story. The
award was unexpected, as I didn’t even know my journalism advisor submitted the work
to the English department. I received compliments about my writing for the first time. To
my surprise, this story went from being one of the toughest assignments I had to one
that verified my ability to produce good work even when I rely on myself. From writing
this op-ed, I strengthened my time management and social skills, formed a stronger
mentality, learned a lot about the professional work world, and gained experience for
future opportunities.

At the end of my junior year, I was given the opportunity to become an editor for the
publication in my senior year. Again, this foreign and unfamiliar role gave me new fears
that made me hesitant to accept the position. I was aware that I would have to take
charge to train reporters, manage the social media platforms, oversee the process of
the newsmagazine production, and provide my input on all different aspects of the
publication. Although I was doubtful of my abilities, I was really thankful that my
Journalism advisor believed in me and supported me in taking on the role. Since I
worked really hard to gain the skills and knew that it would be a great learning
opportunity, I decided to give it a try.
 Screenshot of some of the finished pages for The Lowell December 2017 issue. uploaded onto Google Drive. This is
the second magazine issue I helped publish as an editor of my high school’s journalism team during my senior year. |
Courtesy of The Lowell

I learned all the logistics and ins-and-outs of how the publication is run. My new
responsibilities as an editor, on top of reporting, included managing and planning out
the newsmagazines (everything from layout to content), holding meetings, looking after
my reporters, communicating with all the positions, and fully dedicating my time. With
challenges that are brought upon a team, ideally, there is more collaboration to deal
with any situation together. That was not always the case and balancing Journalism,
school work, and other activities were never easy, but learning to face conflicts,
encourage an even distribution of work, manage my time, watch my words, use new
platforms, oversee the whole process of a publication, and gain various experiences
allowed the hard work to paid off.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a part of the Journalism team is seeing
the end product. After each period of tiresome and dreadful days before print deadlines,
receiving the boxes of neat stacks of newsmagazines and flipping through beautiful
pages of the newest issue is always very fulfilling. “Distribution days” were what we
called the days where the latest print issues came in and all the journalism staff rushed
to gather in the journalism room and then grab stacks of newsmagazines to drop off at
the classrooms of each Registry (similar to Homeroom periods). It is also fulfilling when
the online website content I put together turns out nice. There are so many things I love
about high school Journalism, including the ability to hear one’s story, team bonding,
creating memories, the hands-on experience of using a variety of editing and media
platforms, data management, and more.

This is me, smiling with a sense of fulfillment as I pose next to a vertical banner that lists out the National Scholastic
Press Association Hall of Fame members. I was really proud of my Journalism team and all the hard work everyone
put into every aspect of it. | Photo courtesy of Giping Huang

Participating in Journalism during high school was an experience I could never

forget, with both the difficult and fun times. Despite all the struggles I overcame, the
benefits outweighed the detriments. It not only gave me a voice in school, but also
allowed me to develop creativity, leadership, and commitment to an activity. It was a
great pleasure to be able to document events that happened throughout the year. It also
gave an opportunity to learn practical qualities that would be helpful in college, my
future career, and even in my personal life. Working with a team gave me the ability to
form connections with students from all backgrounds who came together to produce
meaningful content representing the school. In the first journalism convention I attended
during my last semester, The Lowell made it in the NSPA Hall of Fame. I was so proud
of my team. Through some of these hardships, I discovered all the great challenges-
turned-lessons and opportunities I took advantage of during my time working for the
publication. There were lots of cries and laughs during the process, but these became
memories and that my friends and I shared. The growth, memories, and experiences
made it all worth it.

I don’t believe I’m anywhere close to an expert in these skills, but I admit the
unforeseen experiences and skill improvements I developed during this time is majorly
accredited to my participation in Journalism.