JOURNALISM
INVESTIGATIVE & CIVIC JOURNALISM
DOES HAMILTON-WENHAM REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL PRIORITIZE STUDENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH?
The General Consensus ⸱ May 2024
As a ninth grader concerned about student mental health, I created a survey asking whether students believed HWRHS prioritized their psychological and emotional well-being. Seventy-two students responded.
The results revealed a striking disconnect: although most students felt a sense of belonging and knew how to access counseling, 66.7% said they did not look forward to coming to school, with academic pressure emerging as a major concern.
The piece became more than a report of survey results. It was my first attempt to turn something I was noticing in my own community into evidence, questions, and a call for change.
MS. HOWLAND AND THE SCHOOL COUNSELING DEPARTMENT WANT TO EASE STUDENT ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL PRESSURES
The General Consensus ⸱ November 2024
The follow-up grew directly out of my mental-health survey. I interviewed adjustment counselor Ms. Howland to understand what the counseling department thought the results revealed about students’ academic and social pressures.
The conversation shifted the story from identifying a problem to examining what could actually be done about it—from homework loads and scheduling to the ways students access support.
It taught me that good reporting doesn’t necessarily end when an article is published. Sometimes the more important question is what happens afterward.
AFTER A SWASTIKA APPEARED IN A SCHOOL CHAT: HOW SHOULD HWRHS RESPOND TO HATE?
H-W News ⸱ September 2025
After an antisemitic image appeared in a school homeroom group chat, I wanted to understand not only what had happened, but how a school should respond when hate enters its community.
I interviewed students, administrators, educators, and antisemitism experts, examining the tension between accountability, education, intent, and impact.
The article ultimately became less about one image than about a larger question: what message does a school send when it chooses how—and how publicly— to respond?
ONE VOTE, REAL POWER: HOW CLOSE ELECTIONS REVEAL DEMOCRACY AT WORK
H-W News ⸱ May-June 2026
In elections involving thousands—or millions— of ballots, what difference can a single vote really make?
I explored close Massachusetts and local elections, including a state representative’s one-vote victory and a local school-building ballot measure decided by 13 votes.
The article examines the tension between what one vote usually does and what one vote can sometimes do—and why that uncertainty is part of what gives democratic participation its weight.
I began writing journalism because I wanted to understand what was happening around me.
Sometimes that meant asking students what they thought. Sometimes it meant interviewing experts. Sometimes it meant investigating a problem that had become easy to overlook.
The articles below range from student mental health and school policy to antisemitism, environmental science, history, museums, and democracy.
What connects them is curiosity: something caught my attention, and I wanted to know why.
NORWAY MAPLE: THE SILENT BULLY BENEATH THE SURFACE
H-W News ⸱ May 2026
Two trees on my high-school campus—the Norway maple and sugar maple—looked almost identical. Beneath the surface, however, my research suggested a very different story.
For an independent environmental science study, I collected and compared soil samples from an invasive Norway maple and a native sugar maple, then interviewed environmental experts to understand the patterns I found.
The piece combines scientific research with narrative journalism, asking what happens when an ecosystem that looks balanced from above is not balanced underneath.
ENVIRONMENT & RESEARCH
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HISTORY & ADVOCACY
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LOCAL STUDENTS THRIVE IN HISTORY CONTEST, BUT FEDERAL CUTS JEOPARDIZE SCHEDULED NEXT STEP
H-W News ⸱ May 2025
National History Day began as a school assignment for me and became an experience I did not want future students to lose.
After learning that federal funding cuts threatened the national competition, I investigated what the loss could mean for students and for the program itself, incorporating my own experience researching the right-to-die movement.
The article allowed me to combine personal experience, reporting, history, and advocacy. More importantly, it made me think about what happens when an educational opportunity that changed one student’s life is put at risk for the students who come after her.
OPINION
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DON’T SILENCE US: WHY CELLPHONES BELONG IN SCHOOLS
H-W News ⸱ July 2025
When my school introduced a cellphone restriction, I wanted to examine the argument from a student’s perspective.
The piece considers safety, communication, self-regulation, mental well-being, and the particular importance of phone access for students who rely on connected technology for health monitoring.
At its heart, the argument is about more than phones. It asks whether students learn responsibility by having choices—or by having those choices removed.
FEATURES & INTERVIEWS
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WHERE HISTORY BREATHES: INSIDE THE WENHAM MUSEUM WITH DIRECTOR SARAH SOSA-ACEVEDO
The General Consensus ⸱ April 2026
A conversation with Wenham Museum Director Sarah Sosa-Acevedo became an exploration of what museums can do beyond displaying objects.
The article begins with the sensory experience of entering the museum before moving into Sosa-Acevedo's career, her work at the Smithsonian, her philosophy of hands-on learning, and her vision for making history feel immediate and personal.
I wanted the article itself to reflect the idea at its center: history should not sit silently behind glass. It should breathe.
BEHIND THE RAZZLE-DAZZLE OF HWRHS’S CHICAGO
The General Consensus ⸱ November 2025
A feature on HWRHS's production of Chicago, built around interviews with members of the cast and crew.
Rather than simply announcing the performances, I wanted to capture what it took to create the production—the rehearsal process, the demands of performing, the work happening behind the scenes, and the excitement of finally bringing it to an audience.
