Melissa Gomez is here to tell you that you can’t fake it until you make it. A rising senior at the University of Florida, she’s taking this school year off to report full time for the Tampa Bay Times -- and she attributes so much of her success to having been honest. “What if you’re… Continue reading Introducing Active Voice Fellow Melissa Gomez
Active Voice fellow Jamie Crockett wanted to be the next Oprah. She grew up in East St. Louis, Missouri, a place she says is home for many budding athletes but not for media personalities. Despite not having any role models in media to look up to in her immediate community, Crockett fell in love with… Continue reading Introducing Active Voice Fellow Jamie Crockett
Two weeks after my freshman year in college, I retreated to my favorite spot in my hometown of South Pasadena, California. Tucked away on a corner of a one way street is a poorly ventilated little coffee shop with mismatched furniture and a chalkboard menu. From 2013-2015, you could find me at Kaldi’s more often… Continue reading Signing Off: Shine Cho
Serving in the inaugural class of Active Voice Fellows was the opportunity of a lifetime. I was able to work under the guidance of two mentors who’ve grown to be dear to me, Stephanie Leibert and Frank LoMonte, along with four young women who are bright and determined. The Active Voice, in many ways, taught… Continue reading Signing Off: Darlene Aderoju
As my time as an Active Voice Fellow draws to an end, I’m excited by the work that’s been done. Not only have I put together a toolkit to help advisers start free press programs in their own schools, but the other fellows have created projects that empower high school girls and teach them how… Continue reading Signing Off: Sophie Gordon
Advice to the new fellows: Work hard, work early, believe in your skillets; Learn everything you can from your Active Voice mentors; Revel in every moment because it will fly by before you know it. Despite what I have learned, I am going to break an important journalism code and begin with a cliche: All… Continue reading Signing Off: Nashwa Bawab
Throughout my first presentation as an Active Voice Fellow, the unrelenting portrait of a young, female audience member invaded my mind: her eyes blinking in a foreign yet caustic visual Morse code, nose sharply angled up. The taste of pin drop silence parched my throat, and a tingling humidity perched on my skin, as if… Continue reading Signing Off: Sindhu Ravuri
I remember my final days at East St. Louis Senior High School (circa 2010). As senior class president, there was so much to accomplish in such a short amount of time. But I was no stranger to juggling commitments. Not to mention, our class officers and advisors were life savers! One fond memory I hold… Continue reading The Mission: Magnify Their Voices
For many rising seniors, the summer leading into the school year is one of preparing to finally graduate: drafting college applications, studying for standardized tests, and taking senior portraits. For Grace Goble at Maine South High School in Park Ridge, Ill., she’s spent hers a little unconventionally: petitioning her school administration. After taking her senior… Continue reading What Not to Wear: A Yearbook Edition
Practicing as a free press isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It taught me to be too responsible and too aware of how my actions affect others. It allowed me to cover stories on topics that the public needs to know more about and made me too concerned about my civic duties. It really… Continue reading Opinion: Stop holding their hands
