The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va, | K-12 Education Reporter (Nov. 2018 – Present)

– Covered the Charlottesville and Albemarle County school districts as they worked to close achievement and opportunity gaps, grappled with aging infrastructure amid financial constraints and dealt with the pandemic.
– Developed relationships with sources in and outside the school system, including teachers and parents.
– Filed FOIAs on a regular basis to find story ideas or dig into school board decisions.
– Used social media to connect with sources, live-tweet school board meetings and establish myself as the go-to person for local school news
– Worked with a team of fourth-graders at a city elementary school to start a school newspaper — an effort cut short by the pandemic.
– Created a student advisory board to hear directly from high schoolers about what’s happening in their schools
– Spearheaded the newsroom’s data collection efforts regarding COVID-19 cases and vaccinations.
– Collaborated with reporters on other beats to cover local government relations with the school system and breaking news.
– Launched a bimonthly newsletter, The Cheat Sheet, to spotlight education stories and connect with readers that was eventually discontinued by the company.
– Took photos and videos as needed and designed my own interactive graphics using Flourish, Datawrapper and Google Sheets.