I am a 21-year-old junior in college writing a journalism article on a MacBook Pro. My motivation for writing this article is to learn for the sake of learning–as I have never written in the context of journalism before. My biggest academic challenge during this pandemic? My lagging Wi-Fi.

I am aware of my privilege–of already being in college and being chiefly supported by resources provided by my parents.

The Washington Post recently published a story highlighting one high school student who is taking care of her newborn while also fighting to graduate high school for the second time since she dropped out. Her motivation for finishing high school is to one day become qualified for medical school. She is without Wi-Fi, without a job, and without a laptop.

The state of public education is quickly going downhill–and it’s affecting everyone, especially the disadvantaged student. For instance, students who have college on their minds don’t know when they will take their ACTs or SATs, if their transcripts with a Coronavirus-induced “PASS” will reflect who they are, or how they are going to afford textbooks if they can’t work during the pandemic.

“This year was going to be the year I was going to bring up my GPA,” said Agustin Orozco, a junior at Northwest Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. “My GPA won’t be able to compete at the big schools that I want to apply to.”

On Wednesday, Guilford County schools confirmed that as long as students complete assignments online, students will receive a grade of “PASS.” For Orozco, this means that the universities he will apply to in the next year will judge his academic performance based on the GPA that he so desperately wanted to bring up.

“The junior class literally has no idea what they’re doing,” Orozco said.

Orozco’s sister, Val Orozco, is a senior at Northwest Guilford High school and recently got accepted into University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The biggest battle she’s facing as a student is one that thousands of Americans across the country are currently fighting.

“I used to work after school,” Val said. “I can’t go to work because our grandfather lives with us. He’s older and I don’t want to risk it.”

In addition to Val and Agustin, they have five siblings who also live in the same house as their grandfather and their parents. In short, there are ten people living in the Orozco household.

“I don’t get the benefits [of not working] because I’m a dependent,” Val said. “I’m losing $200 week that would go towards books and room and board that I’ll have to pay for.”

Unlike Val, many students in Guilford County are worrying about the here and now.

According to WFDD, the National Public Radio affiliate for the Piedmont Triad, the Guilford County school system is partnering with community groups that are buying refurbished laptops for students who need them to finish their classes for the year.

“Those students are being gifted those laptops,” GCS Superintendent, Sharon Contreras, said. “They won’t have to return them to make sure that they are able to participate in learning while schools are closed.”

In addition to supplying laptops to families who need them, Guilford County is launching several free, outdoor hotspots that are mainly going to be put in school parking lots and housing developments.

Sarah Hutchinson, a tenth grade English teacher at Northwest High School, argues that, even if an unmotivated student is given a device and the wherewithal to access free Wi-Fi, they still may be susceptible to falling behind in school.

“If [the county is] giving them a device, then that is giving these students the ability to be held accountable,” Hutchinson said. “I’ve contacted parents of students who just haven’t logged on…the motivated versus not-motivated gap is going to widen.”

I suppose I could turn this journalism article after deadline, maybe copying and pasting it from the New York Times, riddled with grammar mistakes. However, that would defeat my chief purpose of doing it in the first place: to continue my education.

My situation, however, is a rare and privileged one. My biggest hindrance in learning online is my lackluster Wi-Fi connection. Agustin’s fear is that he won’t be able to get into the college of his dreams. Val’s fear is that she won’t be able to afford textbooks when she starts her first semester of college in the fall. There is a high-school student in Washington, D.C. who has zero to no resources that would give her the wherewithal to feed her daughter, let alone buy a laptop to complete her schoolwork.

“This isn’t a yes or no question,” said Miriam Rollin, director of the Education Civil Rights Alliance. “We’re going to do this. The only question is how and figuring that out with maximum creativity and making it work to the extent that it can under these circumstances.”

One of the ideas I have for story 3 revolve around the idea in the difference of approach to climate change between generations. For instance, I see in my own home a difference between my parents’ and I’s approaches. Also, on campus there seems to be a difference between student and faculty/staff approaches to climate change. I intend to develop this with sources of graduate students I know and their observations, as well as interviewing professors who would offer valuable input.

   Jessica Bennett prefers to let the facts speak for themselves, but that isn’t to say that she doesn’t frame a lot of her quotes from people within context. For instance, one habit she has–which I can see myself adopting if I haven’t already adopted–is to write in hefty “chunks” of hard information that flow together–all based on facts. Her quotes are then used as affirmation for what she said in these chunks of information. She focuses on women’s issues, which I can tell is her passion–because she frames all of her articles on the idea of inequality, and has obviously done the legwork to bring the facts to light.

    For anyone who is skeptical about the feminisit movement, Bennett’s leads would immediately lose their interest. In other words, Bennett pretty much addresses the core of her articles right off the bat by leading with a heart-wrenching, quippy lead that is supposed to make her readers express disgust at the “muck” that she is setting up to unveil in regards to women’s issues. I think her leads are effective, for me–who agrees with a majority of what she’s saying–because they catch my attention and draw me in to learn more about what she’s writing about: which she does very well by nipping her subject in the bud in the lead. 

     The passion that Bennett incorporates into her stories is revealed most strongly in how she ends her stories–which are typed paragraphs of battle-cries for the improvement of women’s issues. 

      Two things that I’m learnign from this reporter that I can apply to my own reporting and writing in future assignment are:

1. I should find a passion or connection with what I’m writing–in any facet–because that passion will come through in my writing and make the article an intriguing piece.
2. I should let the facts speak for themselves, but I should give myself the leeway to express my true emotions on the topic.

Haleigh Cadd

On February eighth, this Saturday, I will attend the 7:30PM production of Ever in the Glades in Scales.

I’m interested in covering this event because I have an interest in theatre and its impact on society, and particularly interested in what choices the WFU theatre department made to put on this performance.

I chose to follow NYT writer and editor Jessica Bennett, because she is a writer focused on gender and culture. This means that I will be able to analyze a dynamic and varied journalism stories ranging from news analysis to politics. I’m also drawn into her word choices and am interested to see how cultivates her stories.

Jessica Bennett’s article on celebrity activist Alyssa Milano

Jessica Bennett’s article: “What Do We Hear When Women Speak?”