NLP AR FY22 - Paperturn - Flipbook - Page 10
Hometown Headlines contest winner
covers pandemic from student perspective
Willa Earnest-Blum
Girls Academic
Leadership Academy
student and NLP’s 昀椀rst
Hometown Headlines
contest winner
For Los Angeles middle school student Willa EarnestBlum, the jarring re-entry into the social landscape
of in-person classes after pandemic restrictions
ended inspired an idea that led to a news story.
A student at Girls Academic Leadership Academy in
Los Angeles, Willa pitched her story idea about the
di昀케cult adjustment to the News Literacy Project’s
昀椀rst Hometown Headlines contest. To enter, students
submitted a news story idea to NLP staff, who
chose the best pitch to develop into an article.
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She wrote:
“
Teachers and students started
questioning how a return to normal,
in-person classroom settings —
where one is seen constantly — has
impacted those who for so long
adapted to logging onto class
from the comfort of home.
Students were once behind a screen,
free of other people’s eyes. Now
every little mistake was ampli昀椀ed
by being front and center.
”
Willa’s journalism teacher Jessica Valera encouraged her
to enter the contest after she 昀椀nished her Checkology
virtual classroom lessons ahead of schedule.
Brandon Pho, a journalist at Voice of OC in California
and a Report for America fellow, helped Willa develop
the story during a series of virtual meetings.
Her experiences gave her the idea for the story, as she
and her classmates were 昀椀nding ordinary in-person
interactions awkward. Willa, 12, interviewed her teacher,
a classmate and the school counselor. “I felt like it was
important to cover all the bases of different perspectives.
It taught me a lot talking to my counselor and my teacher
and my classmate because I got to see their perspectives,
which were sometimes different from mine.”
Her thoroughness impressed Pho. “She
organized her reporting better than I organize
my notes out in the 昀椀eld,” Pho said.
Annual Report FY22
The Voice of OC wrote about Pho’s role
and published Willa's piece.
