Editor-in-chief, photographer, writer
"À La Mode"
The first story I ever wrote for The Communicator, "À La Mode" is a fashion profile on Grace Wang. At the time, we were sophomores; I had admired Grace's style all throughout freshman year, and I wanted to share her sense of fashion with the school. After recruiting my friend Mia, we sat down with Grace mid-lunch in a coffee shop next to school for the interview. We ended up talking for almost 45 minutes, running well into our afternoon class. "À La Mode" was also the first article I took photos for. I had taken portraits of Grace for other classes before, but it felt exciting to take editorial-style fashion photography--which now my favorite style to shoot in.
Photos by Cate Weiser
"Grace Wang, a sophomore at Community High School, has every opinion on fashion you could ask for. She believes that shoes with detailed designs and abstract faces in clothing should be more popular than they are, and that low-rise jeans and berets should never be in fashion again. For her, the most important piece in an outfit is..."
"The Art of Storytelling" was the first piece I ever wrote and designed on my own. Patti Wheeler, an old student of my advisor, visited the creative writing class I was taking to tell us about her experiences with storytelling. Wheeler lost her fiancé to suicide at 24 years old, and attended a support group where she discovered her passion for storytelling. Hearing others put her feelings into words she couldn't yet say helped Wheeler understand the necessity of sharing experiences. Wheeler's description of how that realization affected her resonated deeply with me. Coincidentally, hearing her describe her passion helped me understand how to describe my same passion.
"The Art of Storytelling"
Michigan Interscholastic Press Association: Personality Profile, 3rd place.
"Patti Wheeler’s interest in storytelling was sparked by an unimaginable loss. When she was nearly 24 years old, she returned home to find that her fiancé, Paul, had died by suicide.
'Paul made me feel like the weirdness that I was, was good,' Wheeler said.
Three weeks after his death, Wheeler began going to suicide loss survivor support groups. They helped her understand..."
"Soul Food Wednesday: a Celebration of Culture"
For the first few months of being on staff, I strayed away from news articles; I was nervous to write something that I viewed as very straightforward, where sentences were short and direct. News seemed less personal than features, and I preferred to write about individuals' stories. Writing "Soul Food Wednesday" on an assignment completely changed my perspective on news. I learned how to cover an event and look to understand the humans behind it, and why it was important to them. It turned out that our school's Soul Food Wednesday was a key cultural event that had been hosted by the Black Student Union (BSU) for many years prior. I got to interview several BSU students and learn about their event process.
"On Dec. 11, Community High School’s Black Student Union (BSU) hosted their first Soul Food Wednesday of the year. A long line wrapped around the third floor’s hallways as students excitedly awaited a home-cooked meal of..."
"Talking? More Like Typing."
For the second edition of The Communicator my sophomore year, the theme was technology. I tried for weeks to come up with an on-theme article that I felt was interesting, and a personal experience on social media sparked my idea. I didn't get Snapchat until the summer before my sophomore year, significantly later than most of my peers. In the fall, I started "talking" to my now-boyfriend of two years. At the time, we had many deep and personal conversations over Snapchat, and it struck me how odd it was that Snapchat had become such a natural way to talk to him. It became even stranger to me when we didn't mention those conversations at all in-person. The confusion I felt pushed me to write an exploratory opinion piece.
"I have heard constantly that Gen Z--also known as iGen--has no manners, no work ethic and no ability to hold conversations and create relationships. These statements come from relatives, teachers and even strangers. Every time I hear these blanket statements, I am immediately..."
"The Pareidolia Effect"
It was the winter of sophomore year, and for months, small chalk drawings all around town had been catching my eye. The 3-D details were impeccable, and often based around ordinary pieces of buildings or sidewalk manholes. I looked up "local chalk drawings" and someone named David Zinn popped up. He was an artist, and on his website he had hundreds of photos of small chalk drawings he'd done all over the world. I knew I had to know what his story was. How did he start working in chalk? Where did his character inspiration come from? What did it feel like knowing it all washes away? After finally securing an interview with him via email, we sat down in a local coffee shop and I interviewed him for almost two hours, cutting into my post-lunch class. It was the longest interview I'd ever done and quickly became one of my favorites.
"The sun was out in Ann Arbor, Mich., and David Zinn needed an excuse to enjoy the first beautiful day in weeks. He walked slowly, his eyes fixed on the ground until he spotted what he was looking for..."
"Cleaning the Graffiti"
After an incident involving Sharpie graffiti on the walls of the first floor girl's locker room, and lots of upset over the removal of said graffiti, a laundry list of questions were flowing through my brain. Why were the girls so angry? Why didn't they understand that what happened was wrong? Who cleaned it all up? The answer to that last question: Adel Bakhouche. An immigrant, learning English, working three jobs to help bring his family into the U.S. He spent a weekend using harsh chemicals and paint to remove the graffiti, taking many breaks to get fresh air. The importance of the story took a little time to hit me; after the article came out, the attitude of the whole school changed. People picked up their trash, thanked Adel in the hallways, and erected a janitor appreciation board on the second floor. His life became easier.
Photo by Cate Weiser
"A few weeks ago, several students began covering three walls in the first-floor girls’ locker room in Sharpie graffiti: Text, drawings of characters and scribbles covered the white-tiled walls.
Adel Bakhouche is one of the custodians at CHS. He was tasked with cleaning up the graffiti in the first-floor bathroom.
Bakhouche is a student at WCC and immigrated a year and a half ago from Algeria, where..."
"The Mask Edit"
After a partially virtual sophomore year and a summer-in-pandemic, I got the news that my junior year was going to be virtual. We moved everything for The Communicator online, with the intent of mailing our print editions to subscribers. Nobody on staff could think about anything other than the ramifications of virtual learning, health scares and what was going to happen next. I wanted to focus on something positive, something fashion-related. I knew of two small mask-making businesses run by teenagers in Ann Arbor. One by Lily Knopp, and one by Aly and Gabby Pacifico. The two businesses were completely run by the girls, with large portions of their profits going to charity. The profiles spanned four pages, and garnered both businesses more customers.
"With the rise of Covid-19, masks have been declared a necessity; Ann Arbor teens have used their sewing skills to create and sell homemade masks to help their..."
Michigan Interscholastic Press Association: Personality Profile, 2nd place.
"An Open Letter to the Ann Arbor Board of Education and Ann Arbor Youth"
This article was the first knee-jerk reaction piece I ever wrote. In the winter of junior year, there was a lot of local discourse over whether or not AAPS should start an optional hybrid program for the district. A large group of high school students organized a protest in favor of hybrid learning after the BOE motioned to remain virtual all year. The uproar from my peers made me incredibly frustrated: they shared posts on social media dissenting the protest, calling those who planned it "fools," "clowns," and other harsh names. I wrote the article in one night, after the posts had flooded my feed. My advisor read it the next morning, and it went up that afternoon. I was nervous to publish something that was going to be so contrary to my peers' opinions, but I'm so glad I did. The BOE did end up implementing a hybrid program in the early spring.
"I want to start this piece off by saying that it is a bylined opinion article. I speak for myself, as a 17-year-old journalist with opinions. I am not an expert, and this article is written from my feelings. In-person learning is extremely situational, and potential risk factors can spike or drop overnight..."
Photos by Cate Weiser
"Do You Really Shop There?"
Helen Dean, the subject of this article, has impeccable style that I've admired since I met her freshman year. I wanted to include her in a piece about reworked fashion our "Adaption" edition my junior year, but the article fell through. I pushed it to the next edition, "Lost and Found," and focused the article on Helen's thrifting. I went into the interview with her expecting to hear about her style influences and experience in altering clothes, and it turned much deeper. She shared her experiences growing up in poverty, and how thrifting is a necessity for her rather than a trend she follows. Ann Arbor is an affluent town, and Helen was bullied throughout middle school for thrifting. I hoped that the article could serve as a reminder that everything isn't always as it seems, and never to judge someone for their circumstances.
"'Helen, do you like this?' echoed through the aisles of The Salvation Army. Huron High School junior Helen Dean was shopping with her mom--a once treasured tradition that now filled her with anxiety. Comments from her middle school peers..."