Since the pandemic, my main focus has been on immigrants, minorities, and low-income families. I know what it’s like to have been ignored because your needs were greater than others. My whole family was born in Addis Ababa Ethiopia; my dad lived in America alone for many years trying to bring the rest of us here. We didn’t know anyone here, which was a lot of pressure for my oldest brother who was 10 when we came. He was expected to go to college first even though he didn’t know where to start or who to ask for help. I was very lucky to have been four when we moved. Coming from an immigrant family, I learned how difficult it is for parents to adapt to an American system. We lived in Affordable Housing for all our lives but got evicted several times because my dad spent a lot on lottery tickets. After the pandemic, all the responsibility fell onto me as my two older brothers hadn’t made it into university. I started working to lift the burden of senior expenses off my family and looked to a Black community at my school which truly helped me. They’ve taught me to be comfortable with my background and that I can still succeed. This summer I spoke at the Arlington Public Schools kick-off event attended by the school administrators and school board. I told them my story as a minority, immigrant, and low-income student in America and how to create a better transition and environment for those students. In my junior year, I joined the newspaper class where I have written about cultural appropriation in the Black community as well as the Ethiopian civil war. I interviewed students on those issues and presented them. I joined a broadcast class as well and have created videos about Ethiopian Orthodox Easter to teach students what it is and how it is celebrated. As Inclusivity and diversity are very important to me, I plan to include them in my work in the future as a journalist. I learned that important news that involves diverse people often gets shadowed and overlooked, that is why my focus will be making sure that doesn’t happen. Whether I’m watching a fish on TikTok or a primetime broadcast, I take note of the methods professional journalists use to inform and influence, like overdramatizing a situation or glorifying someone. I want to use these methods but apply them so I'm not manipulating an audience but informing them on a deeper level. As a future political journalist, I will uncover hidden stories and bring the truth to light.

For all these reasons, I find journalism compelling. When I research and speak with ​​authenticity and morals, I have the power to influence people with my knowledge, and my words can change people's opinions. Also, how I address an event can affect people's reaction to it, like mind control in a way, which sounds evil, but it fascinates me. As a budding journalist, I aspire to use the power of my work to engage people to be active in national and international issues. I want to report on the problems that may not get attention, like the Ethiopian crisis and its civil war. As an Ethiopian myself, I’m very passionate about my home country. Last Summer, I attended Elon University for an Emerging Journalist program. I had the opportunity to ask questions of professional reporters, like Gary Robertson of the Associated Press, Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan of The News & Observer, and anchors like Laura Leslie of WRAL and Audrey Biesk of WXII. These people have helped me face anxieties in my personal life as well as my anxieties in my career. I asked them many questions, and I also had the chance to ask a question that came from a place of fear within me, "How is journalism dangerous?" While my mom supports my dream of being a reliable journalist, she always reminds me that it's a dangerous profession. So I asked Baumgartner Vaughan this question, and her answer was surprisingly casual; she agreed it was dangerous to some extent. She explained that readers might not like you for your opinions and coverage, which could be a risk depending on the readers, or you could be working in a dangerous situation or place in the world. Still, she never felt as if her life was at stake while doing her job, which was a relief and quelled my fears because my mind had wandered and made me believe that I might be assassinated for spreading information that people didn't like or agree with. Whether I’m watching a fish on TikTok or a primetime broadcast, I take note of the methods professional journalists use to inform and influence, like overdramatizing a situation or glorifying someone. I want to use these methods but apply them so I'm not manipulating an audience but informing them on a deeper level. As a future political journalist, I will uncover hidden stories and bring the truth to light.

Since the pandemic, my main focus has been on immigrants, minorities, and low income families. I know what it’s like to have been ignored because your needs were greater than others. Coming from an immigrant family, I learned how difficult it is for parents to adapt to an American system. This is one of the many reasons why students like me aren't able to grasp all the opportunities America has to offer. From October 2021 to last April, I participated in a Minority Student Achievement Network conference with schools around the country; I was selected to represent the chosen middle and high school students from Arlington Public Schools. We discussed the problems minority students face and how to best address them. We created a website with resources for teachers and administrators to help create a better environment for minorities. Our core issue is that teachers aren’t realizing the issues that students of color may be experiencing, which may lead to a lack of presence, dropping grades, and bad behavior. Our goal is to help teachers be able to understand the potential struggles of people of color as well as different cultures. We did this by listing resources for African American students, Asian students, undocumented students and more. I presented the website on the last conference day in April and received a lot of positive feedback reminding me that this is an important issue that needs to be under brighter light. On June 9th I spoke at the Arlington School Board meeting, telling the superintendent and the cabinet members why this program, the MSAN conference, is important and should be funded. I learned that my experiences as a person of color are the same as others in the country. The program shared many opportunities for me. Maturing minority students need programs like MSAN to better understand themselves and the education system. Arlington Public School held a kick-off event at my school last summer, attended by the school administrators and school board, and I was invited to give a speech. I told them my story as a minority, immigrant, and low income student in America. I talked about the importance of a better transition for these families to help them navigate and understand an American school system. Students may lose opportunities because they don’t know about them, and it's crucial they learn it at school because they can't get it at home.

My whole family was born in Addis Ababa Ethiopia; my dad lived in America alone for many years trying to bring the rest of us here. We didn’t know anyone here, which was a lot of pressure for my oldest brother who was 10 when we came. He was expected to go to college first even though he didn’t know where to start or who to ask for help. I was very lucky to have been four when we moved. Coming from an immigrant family, I learned how difficult it is for parents to adapt to an American system. We lived in Affordable Housing for all our lives but got evicted several times because my dad spent a lot on lottery tickets. After the pandemic, all the responsibility fell onto me as my two older brothers hadn’t made it into university. I started working to lift the burden of senior expenses off my family and looked to a Black community at my school which truly helped me. They’ve taught me to be comfortable with my background and that I can still succeed. During the lockdown, the internet was my only connection to the outside world. While I was confined in my room, I kept seeing all the things that were happening—the large fires, the Covid death count, police brutality, the election controversy, and the genocides. I spent hours digging and digging on the internet to find out all of these things and the search made me realize just how much they weren’t showing on TV. The names of the victims of police brutality, the fact the Uyghur genocide has been happening since 2014, and that almost three billion animals were hurt during the Australian fires. I saw little to no coverage of any of this on national television. I was only seeing it on Tiktok because fortunately my generation doesn’t pick and choose what deserves coverage. Since the pandemic, my focus has been on immigrants, minorities, and low-income families. I know what it’s like to have been ignored because your needs were greater than others. My background has taught me to be strong and independent and my future is important to me so I will work hard in college to get where I want to be as a political journalist and news anchor. For all these reasons, I'm inspired to become a journalist, a journalist who writes and speaks for everyone. I aspire to cover important news that does not get televised as often as it should. I learned that awareness is more important than I thought—Informing people can bring about justice in itself, and that's what I want to do.