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Bella Kim

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Finalist

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Poetry
  • Writing
  • Journalism
  • Community Service And Volunteering
  • Volunteering
  • Reading

Reading

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Bio

Senior at Los Alamitos High School. AP and Honors student with 4.67 GPA. Journalist with four years of experience; current editor-in-chief of the LAHS Griffin Gazette, advisor to Youth Center marketing intern for The Youth Center, South Bay Youth Journalism reporter, and L.A. Times High School Insider contributor. Represented California at 2024 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference. Ballerina, avid reader/poet. Pursuing career in journalism.

Education

Los Alamitos High

High School

2021 – 2025

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Bachelor's degree program
Majors of interest:
Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs, Other, Journalism, English Language and Literature, General, English Language and Literature/Letters, Other
Desired degree modality:
Full-Time
Medical school interest:
No

Career

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Online Media
Dream career goals:
Journalist
Work experience:
2 years
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Advocacy
  • Politics
  • Entrepreneurship
Freddie L Brown Sr. Scholarship
Chi Changemaker Scholarship
“Journalism is dead.” Although I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement, it was true at Los Alamitos High School before the Griffin Gazette. Most students didn’t understand journalism or the role it plays on campus. When I became editor-in-chief in August 2023, the Griffin Gazette was celebrating its first birthday, and the party’s turnout was modest: our fledgling newspaper staff of twenty-three. Eight dropouts later, our class was under twenty students and in danger of shutting down. Despite this, I built a culture of journalism on a campus where it did not exist, in a community where it is undervalued. Overcoming these challenges, I lifted the Griffin Gazette from a group of cub reporters to a newsroom of award-winning student journalists. Accepting my school’s disinterest in journalism as outside my control, I fostered the growth of our eager learners, guiding them and building them up. I co-anchored our broadcast news channel; took the lead over our Instagram account; and edited articles during lunch, after school, and on weekends. I contacted LAHS alumni and other working journalists to visit our class as guest speakers, and I emailed the principal weekly to get our articles in the school newsletter. When adults on campus sought to restrict our voices, I held my ground and advocated for journalism by reaching out to teachers with informational fliers and individual meetings. With graduation approaching, I’m developing a digital folder of class resources and training my managing editor to take over as editor-in-chief, continuing the Griffin Gazette’s legacy. As a result of these initiatives, the Griffin Gazette is recognized by School Newspapers Online and Headliners in Education as one of the nation’s top high school news sites, with a staff of nearly thirty. More importantly, Los Alamitos recognizes us as a reputable news source. LAHS students, teachers, and clubs seek us out with news tips and requests to cover their events. Our scrappy team started as a small newspaper on a campus generally indifferent to our existence; now in our third year, we made a name for ourselves that will establish the Griffin Gazette as a respected LAHS publication for years to come. By making space for the Griffin Gazette on a campus that lacked a newspaper to inform students and hold adults accountable, I am part of a story that begins now and continues into a future of journalism for thousands more LAHS students.
Bella Kim Student Profile | Bold.org