The Olympics
The room was electric with anticipation. On either side of her, Skyline High School runners were squished on chairs and couches, awaiting the men’s 1500-meter world final. Nina Beals, a current junior at Community and runner at Skyline, felt the nerves through the screen. Excitement was building.
Above, Hobbs Kessler — a former Community student and Skyline runner — took his place on the purple-colored track.
Over the summer, I was at dinner with my family friend (not featured) and both of our dads when the men's 1500m final at the Paris Olympics was being run. One of the runners was her coach, which was a fun contrast because one of my former coaches was on the field hockey team. We spent the rest of that dinner talking about seeing mentors succeed and how it made crazy feats seem a little more doable. So when we came back in the fall and an Olympics feature story was up for grabs, I took my opportunity. This piece won first place for a MIPA sports feature story.
What's the Story?
When I first stepped into Room 300, interviewing someone I didn't know felt like the most daunting task ever. But as I've gotten more comfortable with it, I've been able to build connections with people I never would have talked to otherwise. These longer and more complicated interviews usually end up inside feature stories like the ones here.
Power Package Story: Eli Braunschneider
With 49 pairs of unfamiliar eyes on them, Eli Braunschneider let out a breath — one they’d been holding in for years. More than 700 miles from home, they had just stepped into a new world.
This was the first time they introduced themselves to a group using they/them pronouns. This group, their new classmates, would spend the next few months farming, learning and exploring together.
This is a piece that I wrote with Milly Sandstrom, who is something of a Room 300 mini-me. While I jumped on later than I would have preferred, I am super happy with how it turned out. This piece is about one of my elementary school friends and the way they explored gender identity seven hundred miles from home.
Climbing Through Life: Vara's Ascent
As the tear-stained washcloth hit the bathroom floor, Emily Gordon knew her nine-year-old daughter wasn’t going to give up.
Just a few hours earlier, they had been driving home from a post-doctor’s appointment ice cream run when her phone rang. The pediatrician’s voice echoed through the car: Vara James had cancer. Gordon immediately disconnected the phone. The test results had returned and identified the mass enveloping her right kidney as Wilms tumor — a growth usually found in younger boys — that needed to be removed as soon as possible.
Vara and I have known each other since middle school, but it wasn't until some of my high school friends brought me rock climbing after school one day that I learned about Rock Cancer, her nonprofit that gives kids with cancer a space to be normal and climb rocks together. This piece is the byproduct of half a dozen hours of interviews, returning to the gym for a photo-specific session (shoutout Daniel Jacob), and Vara's storytelling skills. It was also featured as the cover story in our third edition of The Communicator.
Ava's Unknown
When she got her driver’s license, she didn’t think twice about being a donor; however, she never would have expected the order of the transplant list to take up 40 percent of her mental capacity.
In mid-August, Ava Griffith’s 14-year-old brother was at summer camp when he lost feeling in his arm and subsequently passed out. He spent the following month in the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Eli Griffith’s life has been forever changed.
Connection Story: Maggie and Ebie Lamb
Home alone, Domino’s New York-style pizza in hand, Maggie and Ebie Lamb sit down for a sister’s night in. Maggie dives right in, while Ebie picks the cheese off first.
Tonight’s movie: “Frozen” is a particularly nostalgic watch for the pair, a familiar childhood favorite.
Kinga Jung Makes Mézeskalács
For as long as Kinga Jung can remember, her Christmas holiday has always revolved around Mézeskalács, or “Hungarian gingerbread cookies,” the family-favorite makes an appearance every winter, the smells of clove, cinnamon and ginger filling the house with a nostalgic warmth.
Kinga and I first met in our freshman year French class. It was there that she told me about her family's Christmas traditions. Again, this piece is a part of a larger package story about foods that are special to us and the memories we associate with them. To write this article, Kinga and I baked these cookies together while she told me about her family's Christmas traditions.
I first met Maggie when she trotted her way into our forum room at an incoming eighth-grade transition day. Immediately, I knew that she was Ebie's sister and that we were going to be friends. This piece is part of a larger package story about connection between pairs of people. It takes a slightly alternative form, with two unique articles, written from two different transcripts, about one topic: their bond.
Ava Griffith is one of the most happy-go-lucky people I know. She can always be counted on for words of encouragement or help with math homework. It wasn't until two months into the school year that I learned about her brother's health. From the outside, you couldn't tell what was going on at home. In this piece, Ava explains the life she'd been living with her brother regularly in and out of the hospital. This piece was part of a larger package of stories about unknowns, and that package won first place for MIPA Human Interest Feature.