Black ELHS student mistaken for suspect in October incident at ELPL, confronted by library administrators and police
This began with a staffer texting our WhatsApp chat that they had just witnessed an incident at the library involving a student. It was a half day, so I was already home, but after receiving a call from my print editor, asking for advice on how to proceed with coverage, I decided to come help in person. This resulted in me and other staffers working on scene, interviewing witnesses and attempting to talk to the library administrators, for upwards of six hours. We published the story that night.
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ELPD and ELFD Discuss Providing Essential Services During Pandemic
I had only been on East Lansing Info's staff for a few months when my editor emailed me with an assignment for this story. Up to this point, I had only interviewed people who I was somewhat familiar with, and anyone else over email. For the first time, it worked to my advantage to be a student journalist, as the officers were more cooperative and willing to talk about how they were able to provide services in a seemingly ongoing crisis. Being my first major news story, I was very happy with how it turned out, and it helped humanize-- for both me and our readers-- the police and fire services.
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Whitmer and MDHHS Announce Extension of COVID-19 Restrictions
After virtual school one day in late 2019, I tuned in to an announcement by Governor Whitmer about COVID-19 restrictions, including those in schools. Once the conference ended, I felt like I wanted to write something to share what had been said. This story would become my very first breaking news story. We published the story the next day on our site. This was the very first breaking news story Portrait had done, and it showed us another way in which we could use our new website. I was also able to receive a comment from district administration, who up to that point were usually swamped with work and did not respond quickly.
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Students and Specialists Express Optimism About Vaccines
Out of all of my work my first year on the staff of Portrait, this was definitely the most challenging piece that I wrote-- and the one I am the most proud of. This was one of the first stories I pitched myself, and it stemmed out of my own curiosity about how my peers felt about the new vaccines. So I had a survey sent out, tried to reach out to professionals, and worked on finding students who I could interview. This story became the largest and widest ranging story I wrote all year. While it was a struggle to find experts to talk to, I was happy to publish the story-- just a week after our online team's cycle had ended.
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