Writing
Introduction
Print journalism is the reason I first entered Ladue Publications. As a longtime writer and reader, I've been enamored with all forms of words my entire life — from "The Chronicles of Narnia," which I read every winter break, to the short essays I write in my free time. Prior to my sophomore year, though, I had no exposure to journalistic writing. Thrown into a newsroom, I quickly picked up ledes, nutgrafs and transitions as a writer for our "in-depth" section. Junior year, I pushed further, writing stories that highlighted news and investigative pieces which were usually in a solutions journalism perspective. I write to inform, educate, and most of all, inspire action.
Investigative Reporting
Examples
District Disparities
Ladue Publications • March 2024
Data Journalism​: In St. Louis, my hometown, it's customary to greet strangers with a simple question: "Where did you go to school?" St. Louisans are fiercely proud of their high school, often associating their secondary education with a lifetime of accomplishments. But public high schools aren't all built the same. Each district is primarily funded through tax revenue from individuals and businesses located within their municipality, affecting student opportunities. To conduct research for the story and its accompanying infographic, I dug into data from the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, United States Census Bureau and U.S. News. I began to understand how monetary allocation works — a system that goes beyond budget and expenses, but must encompass student and environment needs as well. I then learned to synthesize and present the information, finding packaging and designs that would seem approachable rather than intimidating to readers.​
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Dual Byline: I wrote the lede, "Student Environment" and "Teacher Environment."
Recognitions: Best of SNO Story, SNO Sites (2024)
Under Fire
Ladue Publications • April 2023
School shootings across the nation and the introduction of intruder drill policies at Ladue High School left students looking for answers from school officials. My co-writer and I wrote this story in an attempt to provide some.
Dual Byline: I wrote the lede, "Administration" and "Response."
Recognitions: Fourth Place News Story, NSPA (2023)
Dousing the Flame
Ladue Publications • April 2024
Most disregard climate change until it affects their own town. This piece took a localized perspective to spur the community into taking action.
Dual Byline: I wrote "Background" and "Environmental Discrimination."
Recognitions: Fourth Place Local Climate Change Reporting, NSPA (2024); Best of SNO Story, SNO Sites (2024)
A Closer Look at Affirmative Action
Ladue Publications • September 2023
In the wake of the SCOTUS' affirmative action decision, Ladue's class of 2024 was hesitant and uncertain. Through interviews with local admissions officers, counselors and students, this piece aimed to provide clarity into an already confusing process.
Dual Byline: I wrote the lede and "Admissions Process."
Recognitions: All Missouri In-Depth Feature Story, MIJA (2024)
Becoming American
Ladue Publications • February 2023
Through comments on food, names and the American Dream, first-generation American students at Ladue often feel marginalized. To explore the impact of this cultural assimilation, I wrote this piece to give a voice to those who wished for greater representation in their communities
Dual Byline: I wrote the lede and first half of the story.
Reflection
Investigative reporting is by far my favorite, as it traditionally follows the lines of solutions journalism. As my EJP at Elon University mentor Kelly Furnas put it, you don't want to describe the water if someone is drowning. You want to tell them how to survive. In these long-form pieces, I often conduct anywhere from six to 10 interviews — as many as it takes to fully understand the situation. With my stories, I'm able to foster change in a way that's not seen in any other journalistic form, using my words and the voice of my sources to uncover and solve a problem. This type of writing is also the most emotional for me. The interviews, like the one I conducted with a source who had lost her cousin in a school shooting, are gut-wrenching and challenging, forcing me to interview as a human rather than a reporter, and creating stories that closely adhere to the interviewee's experience.
News
Examples
St. Louis County Council Approves Legislation to Fund Senior Tax Freeze Program
West Newsmagazine • August 2024
Speaking with Representatives​: For a few years, the St. Louis County Council Legislature has debated a property tax credit program for senior citizens. Due to a lack of funding, it seemed as though the initiative was doomed to fail. However, while I was working as an intern for a local paper, the legislature revisited the topic and passed the necessary bill July 23. Prior to the meeting, I spoke with legislators and stakeholders, understanding various perspectives to the program. It was a very unique experience — Ladue Publications had prepared me for general interviews, but West Newsmagazine pushed me further, encouraging me to pursue conversations with representatives and businessmen who didn't necessarily wish to converse with a reporter. Then, I attended the open meeting, taking notes and identifying key quotes. I turned the story in the very next day. The tight turnaround, paired with balancing the various political perspectives and stakeholders made the article a formative experience in the realm of political journalism.
Interning Elon Senior Pushes Community Engagement
Elon News Network • August 2024
At Elon University's Emerging Journalists Program, I met Kai Whiteside, a student spending his summer interning with the town government. This story bridged my love for political and feature journalism, and was the only one of our cohort to be picked up to be published on Elon's student news site.
Ladue Schools Board of Education Discusses Potential Impacts of State and National Initiatives
Ladue Publications • February 2025
In the Ladue School District's Jan. 29 school board meeting, I covered DEI and school choice vouchers that board members discussed. The event helped me understand localization of national politics, giving community members answers they deserved about Ladue's next steps.
Reflection
Honestly, it took me a while to love news reporting. When I started journalism, it was bland and emotionless — two things that did not sit well with 15-year-old Arti. But, during the summer of 2024, I learned to love it. Working at West Newsmagazine, I churned out news story after story — sometimes a simple brief, other times a longer piece with multiple sources. No matter the length, I attempted to find a way to connect with my interviewees. Once, this meant a face-to-face conversation about the weather and my source's children. Another time, we spoke about the interviewee's extensive work in family therapy. These conversations humanized even the most dry news stories, adding emotion into the piece so readers were more engaged.
Features
Examples
Crescendo
Ladue Publications • February 2024
Vulnerable Interviews​: While most in think in English or another language, Yueheng W. thinks in music. In a two-hour interview, I was granted the privilege of learning about the inner working of Yueheng's mind, speaking about his experience as a classical composer. Then, I spoke to his peers and teachers, attempting to understand the nuances that come with composing classical music as a high schooler. Rather than being transactional, as many assume interviews to be, this conversation was a candid exchange. After the interview, I worked to ensure that every word in the article encapsulated Yueheng's thoughts, feelings and actions. As a writer that had mainly dealt with investigative pieces, feature writing was a new field — but one that I was eager to explore. I wrote and rewrote the lede, especially, changing a previously-drab school routine paragraph with one that detailed Yueheng's process of composing music, even ​using descriptive phrases that detailed the very notes within his pieces.
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Recognitions: Third Place Feature Story, NSPA Clips & Clicks (2024); Best of SNO Story, SNO Sites (2024)
Developmental Resources Set Kids on the Right Track
St. Louis Post-Dispatch • November 2024
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the local paper, annually hosts "Old Newsboys" — an initiative that donates an issue's revenue to St. Louis charities. I volunteered to write this story, regarding a charity that provided child development services, for the cause.
Dual Byline: I wrote the last three quote-transitions.
How to Foster Quality Family Time During the School Year
Mid Rivers Newsmagazine • August 2024
When students go back to school in August, many families feel like they drift apart as summer nights together turn into basketball games and study sessions. Through interviews with students and counselors, this story aimed help families feel bonded even while school was in session.
Reflection
Every time I've written a features journalism piece, it feels like a breath of fresh air. Rather than getting bogged down in statistics and facts, as most journalistic styles require, I allow myself to enter a sacred place, filled with multiple-hour interviews and connections with my sources on the most intrinsic level. These stories also seem to write themselves — which, as any writer knows, is a sign of incredible interviews. I struggled for a while, though, as a features writer. The style of writing requires key attention to detail, especially with the lede. As someone that's only ever seen descriptive writing in novels, rather than in my own work, it took me a while to understand how to go about writing these in the best way. To practice, I wrote and re-wrote every features lede I had — exploring every possibility to ensure I was writing and portraying my sources' stories in the most accurate way possible.
Opinions
Examples
Kamala Harris’ Laugh is None of Your Business. Neither is Mine.
Medium • August 2024
Political Journalism​: When former president Joe Biden dropped out of the running for the 2024 general presidential election and former vice president Kamala Harris took his place, media coverage was immediate and rampant. But not all rhetoric, even on nonpartisan news sources, was impartial. In fact, much of what was said about Harris was demeaning — and not even for her policies. Instead, many berated her laugh. Harris was called names like Cackling Kamala, which represented the larger public's inability to envision a woman taking the highest federal office. The issue trumped individual politics — it was a matter of respect in a democracy that ought to be equal for all. In an attempt to end the constant disparaging coverage, I wrote this piece. It was originally an open letter to Sky News Australia contributor Tim Blair, for the New York Times' Open Letter Contest, but was repurposed to serve as an op-ed suitable for publishing on Medium.
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Recognitions: Finalist of New York Times' Open Letter Contest, The New York Times (2024)
Students Need to Recognize the Biases in AI and Appropriately Fact-check its Information
Ladue Publications • January 2024
As Chat-GPT and other AI softwares ran rampant in Ladue, the editorial board decided to report upon the dangers AI could pose. I researched AI's bias within and outside of the classroom, writing this piece as a warning to the student body.
Trick-or-Treat Treasures
Ladue Publications • October 2022
This story originally covered Generation Z's obsession with growing up too fast, constantly engaging in "adult" activities. But after a humiliating experience with my copy editor in chief, I pivoted last-minute to speak on the importance of trick-or-treating. Looking back, it would've greatly benefited from a larger variety of verbs and stronger angle, but it was nonetheless relevant when it was published.
Reflection
I've never been much of an opinion writer, largely because I traditionally advocate through door-knocking and canvassing. But putting a pen to paper — or rather, my fingers to a keyboard — has proved therapeutic time and time again. By extending my advocacy to the print journalism world, I've been able to conduct more research and understand more than is possible in face-to-face conversations. However, I'd be wrong to say I have nothing to learn in opinion journalism. In the future, I want to expand past the long-form opinions writing that I'm comfortable with — allowing graphs and charts to tell the story, as this type of packaging is what will draw readers in and keep them hooked.