Feature
Although writing for the Feature section was always the most difficult for me, I always enjoyed challenging myself with these complex topics. I was able to experiment more creatively with my writing style and learn how to conduct more in-depth interviews. Below are some of the feature stories I have written.
While participating in the Princeton Summer Journalism program this past summer, I was able to produce this feature on the COVID-19 impact of New York bodegas. This was my first experience with virtual reporting. All interviews for this story were conducted over Zoom with multiple bodega owners. One of my interviewees was Juan Valerio, a bodega owner who spoke pure Spanish. I was able to utilize my bilingual skills during this interview, conducting it in Spanish and then translating it to English. This is probably one of my favorite interviews that I've ever conducted. We spoke about a wide array of topics during our hour-long interview, ranging from losing his father to COVID-19 to his bodega's experience during this pandemic.
This article was featured on the 2020 edition of The Princeton Summer Journal on page 5.
Nasim Almuntaser, a college student, has been working long hours at his parents’ bodega while trying to adjust to online classes.
"Bodegas Confront New Challenges"
I was able to write this feature on USC's Associate Dean of Admissions Allyson Hill while participating in the Annenberg Youth Academy. I was pushed to pitch a story idea and execute it as I saw fit. With the guidance of amazing journalism professors at USC, I was able to condense the information I gained from this interview into a feature piece that highlighted her love of connection with students and her goal of demystifying higher education and the college application process.
This article was featured on the Annenberg Youth Academy 2019 Medium website.
Associate Dean of Admissions Allyson Hill smiled excitedly in front of her office after an in-depth interview on her career and personal life.
"Dean Hill’s love for students motivates her to teach"
Photo by Itzel Luna
I participated in the Annenberg Youth Academy during the summer when the Women's World Cup was taking place. During this time, there was a heightened conversation surrounding the inequalities between women and men in professional soccer. I decided to write an in-depth piece about this. I ran around UCS's campus for days, interviewing USC professors and students to include both expert and student opinions. The statistics attributed to this topic were confusing so I also worked to break down that information as well as possible.
This article was featured on the Annenberg Youth Academy 2019 Medium website.
This infographic highlights the statistical inequalities between the Men’s and Women’s World Cup.
Infographic by Itzel Luna
"Women’s world cup is breaking records, but that’s not enough for FIFA"
I wrote this article during the Princeton Summer Journalism Program (PSJP) with another PSJP student. For this story, we were tasked to report on the youth's opinion of then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. We interviewed three high school students, one from Maryland, one from North Carolina and another from Kentucky. They would all be too young to vote in the 2020 election. Since our interviews were pretty long and they spoke about a lot of different information, our biggest difficulty with this story was picking information that would result in the most concise story. We decided to focus on the students' discomfort toward Biden's older policies as Senator and Vice President.
This article was featured in the Princeton Summer Journalism Blog.
"Biden’s Checkered Past Raises Questions for Teens"
