Commitment to Diversity

Part of what initially drew me to journalism was my passion for social justice. Starting as a member of the Anti-Defamation League throughout middle school and now as a student seat on both my town and school’s DEI committees, I’ve grown to recognize the importance of elevating underrepresented voices. I saw my ability to allow others to be seen, and wanted to amplify my impact. These experiences cultivated the lens through which I saw journalism. I was eager to find ways to broaden perspectives, whether it was inside or outside of our newsroom. I covered DEIB forums as a freshman, cultural celebrations as a sophomore, and marginalized groups as an upperclassman. With each story, even if only by my sources, I felt I was elevating important issues. Not only this, but it provided color to a sometimes stagnant line of local politics and sports games. It saddens me that dismantling systems of bigotry has been targeted by national policies, but it only magnifies the importance of this work. Diversity isn’t a choice, it's the natural state of human beings. Communities exhibit variety in a countless ways, and it’s our responsibility as journalists to provide accurate representation of the world around us.

Student Spotlight

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This was a project that had been brewing for a while, after our publication came to the consensus that we wanted to include more voices in our projects. The Student Spotlight Series was a project where younger students in our journalism class would be assigned another student—chosen at random from 2,000 members of Westford Academy—to interview. It aimed to expose our viewers to more of their peers, removing ourselves from a cycle of publishing the same star athletes and reigning clubs. After the idea’s inception, I remember loving it so much I spent my February break devising a project outline. Complete with email templates and example questions, my document served as the foundation for the publication. The posts gained a lot of traction, often showcasing small moments of humor and kindness of often overlooked students.

Click Here for Email Template

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View All Student Spotlights

These are the posts I made for our social media pages. We sent these out as an introduction to the series, followed by a bi-weekly release of new Student Spotlights.

DEI Curriculum

After attending the JEA fall journalism convention at the beginning of my junior year, I became DEI certified by attending a certain number of diversity workshops. Through these students and advisors, I was able to recognize flaws within our own publication. Misspelled names, incorrect cultural capitalization, or even incorrect pronouns were more than minor mistakes. They detached our publication from its community, unable for people to connect with writing that doesn’t understand them. As reporters, it’s our job to accurately represent our community. This is impossible without understanding the language that represents such communities. In hopes of improving our representation, I created this slideshow as a resource for all future journalism students to refer to with questions surrounding accurate representation. It details terminology, general guidelines, as well as offering mini activities for students to reference. Through the weeks I worked on this project, research taught me terms and phrases that even I hadn’t known before. It was proof that we can’t control the environment we grow up in, nor the things we are taught. But as journalists, we can take it upon ourselves to learn—to broaden our perspectives to enable quality coverage.

View the full presentation below.

Journalism DEI Presentation

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Presentation PDF

While the slideshow served as a helpful step by step lesson for students, I also wanted to create quicker reference sheets. Below are three of the primary documents I shared with my newsroom.

This is an outline for an activity I created, designed to teach students the importance of accurate representation and how to approach asking about identity.

This is a reference sheet for students to look at before publishing. It includes an overview of correct grammar, terminology, and fact-checking practices.

This is a source reference sheet for students with further questions about identity terminology. It offers links to reliable organizations, answering complicated questions.

IDD Coverage

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During my sophomore year, I came across a flyer advertising a “Dance-a-Thon” event hosted by the school’s Best Buddies club. I remember being genuinely curious to learn how such an event would look at WA, and quickly signed up to cover it. Best Buddies was also sparking in attendance at the time of the event, so it was the perfect opportunity to report on something that would later play such an important role in the school.When I arrived at the event, I was swarmed by countless individuals, eager to share how much they loved this group. At some point I ended up in the dance circle, surrounded by countless grins and laughter. I wondered why anyone would ever want to miss out on such a joyous experience. I’ve also learned first-hand that while committing a publication to diverse coverage can benefit the community, it also benefits the reporter. Learning how the school was able to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDDs) made me reframe perspective on how we could make the building a more accessible place for learning.

Other Coverage

It’s always my goal to involve diversity in all of my projects. Even when I’m not reporting on a story that focuses on identity, I attempt to find diverse ways to elevate perspectives. A commitment to diversity can take many forms. It’s not always about the grand gestures, but rather resides in the curiosity to understand others. Even in simple questions like “what are your preferred pronouns?”