Writing Samples
March 28, 2025
Last spring, a Crumbl location opened up in Coralville. I knew that Crumbl was a super popular destination for a lot of people, but I had never been since there was no Crumbl in the Iowa City area. On the opening day, I decided to drive over during my journalism period to see what Crumbl was actually like. I interviewed two City High students, Grey Linley and Ethan Lalumiere, who also tried Crumbl on it's opening day.
I love a sweet treat—this year, my friend Martha and I have written protein coffee drink reviews—and I love writing timely reviews. I was able to write and publish this article on opening day which I was proud of because it showcased my ability to write breaking news.
October 30, 2025
A few months ago, a science teacher emailed me about the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute. Since I ​had never heard about it before and learning about new topics is my favorite part of being a journalist, I immediately jumped on it.
This year, two students—Estelle Ralston and Siena Brown—were selected to attend the program. In addition, Brown had spent the summer interning for the World Food Prize in Kenya, which I was super interested in learning about. I also interviewed the advisor for the program, City High teacher Mary Lestina, who introduced the World Food Prize to both Brown and Ralston.
​
​
November 7, 2025
During the government shutdown, I sent out a survey to the City High student body asking how they believed it affected students. To my surprise, many students didn't care, since they thought its effects were relegated to lawmakers and federal employees.
I wanted to show the shutdown's localized effects, especially regarding SNAP benefits, to demonstrate to students why they should care about the shutdown. I interviewed a City High school counselor, Mary Peterson, who was familiar with its effects, a student, Ziggy Evans, whose family relies on SNAP benefits, and other anonymous students who were affected by the government shutdown.
This article was featured on the front page of The Little Hawk's November issue.
February 9, 2026
In February, I reported on the anti-ICE school walkout and subsequent protest, dubbed "Melt the ICE" by organizers, held in my school district. I was asked by the Iowa City Press-Citizen to write a story for their website that evening so it could be published the next day, which gave me a real deadline and a little bit of a time crunch! After the story was posted on the Press-Citizen, I published a version on TheLittleHawk.com.
This article was featured on the front page of The Little Hawk's March issue.
March 12, 2026
When I learned that half of the students on my school's music department trip to Germany were stuck in Chicago, I immediately knew I had to write about it. I reached out to a few students who had made it to Germany and a few who were still stuck in Chicago. For the rest of the day, I was glued to my phone and laptop screen—either interviewing people involved or writing the story. Since this was a developing story, I was able to get the first article out the same evening that students were stuck in Chicago, and the next day, I worked with a few other Little Hawk reporters on an update about how the students in Chicago were doing and what their experiences were like.