I don’t pay attention to this blogsite nearly as much as I should. However, for good reasons. For the last two years, I’ve been working to get my career off the ground as a journalist covering urban/inner city issues and branding myself. I think it’s safe to say that it’s manifesting… Slowly, but surely.
Getting ready for my close-up during the first shoot with Nine Network for “All Grown Up.”
Click here to read my big, 18-month long project titled “All Grown Up” looking back on the impact of a corporate sponsored effort at an inner city St. Louis Public School (which happened to be my school at the time). People will be able to take many, many important points from the story regarding inner city education and living. And, it’s cool because it’s not often you hear or read about follow-ups to efforts taking place to improve urban education- did the effort achieve it’s goal? If so, in what ways? How did it fall short? What can be done differently in future efforts?- things like that.
Many thanks to my editor, photographer, the donors, media organizations, and last but not least, MY COMMUNITY, for making this possible! It really helped me to find myself as a journalist, and ultimately, confirmed what it is I want to do with my work, which is essentially to use it as a tool to shed light on urban American issues to usher in necessary changes. And be a voice for the people while doing so! I didn’t have the traditional track of starting in a small market and working my way up, so I knew I had to step out of the box to make myself heard in this industry. 🙂
Interviewing Jefferson’s principal, Nathalie Henderson, for “All Grown Up.” Nathalie’s last year at Jefferson was unfortunately the 2013-2014 school year. She is moving on to one day become a superintendent!
And after you read the story, check out the promo video below of the interview I conducted with my former fifth-grade teacher. Also included are two video clips from my radio interview on 550AM KTRS promoting “All Grown Up” (we had a pretty interesting discussion). This Fall, The Nine Network of St. Louis will air a documentary version chronicling my journey of the project. Folks will also get to see me grow along the way from a somewhat shy journalist in the beginning, to having a more relaxed and confident persona. Enjoy!
Writer's Wit 