Reporting and Writing
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Photo by Vidya Ramanathan
Writing is how I first found my passion for journalism. I love playing with words to find the combinations that feel right. I love going back through my notes and recordings after an interview. I love organizing an interview into quotes and transitions and transforming it into a story. Even now, as I've branched out in my coverage and as my journalism has evolved to be so much broader, writing is something I return to frequently. ​Reporting always feels natural. Whether it's having a sit-down conversation with someone, following trails sparked by my curiosity and questions or simply noticing the details of my surroundings, I am always trying to understand the context and see the full story of the subject.​ Each of my stories holds personal value and importance to me. No matter the story, I write from my heart and do my best to portray the situation as accurately and fully as I can. I try to be as genuine as possible in my words.​
Below are examples of my writing and reporting over the years. Please click on the titles to read the full stories.
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NEWS
School Board Coverage
In 2024, while I was at the CSPA conference in New York City, Ann Arbor Public Schools announced suddenly that they were cutting $25 million from our budget for the following school year. Naturally, the whole Ann Arbor community erupted. My adviser and I sat down in New York and began planning out our coverage.
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I immediately began reporting and was at the head my school's coverage. I went to Board meetings every week from then until the end of the school year, taking thousands of photos and writing article after article. Classmates came to me for updates on the situation. Teachers from my elementary and middle schools thanked me for the work that The Emery has been doing. I would introduce myself to a group, and they'd tell me that they recognize my name from the articles they'd been reading to get information on the budget.
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I made it my mission to get as many perspectives as possible throughout my stories – including teachers, families, students, board members, Union representatives and community members, just to name a few.
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This experience wasn't an easy one at all. It was so hard to go and sit behind my camera and see my teachers struggle and cry and fight for their rights while I had to remain unbiased. But it was powerful knowing that people were looking at what I was putting out there to get the most accurate rundown of what’s happening. It was powerful seeing what felt like the whole school reposting my photos on their Instagram stories to spread awareness. It was powerful knowing that I was shedding light on a topic that affected my community so deeply.
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I received the 2025 Student Journalist Impact Award from JEA for the coverage I had done that year.
These are some photos from when I received the Student Journalist Impact Award at the Spring JEA/NSPA convention in the Spring in Seattle.
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Photos courtesy of Vidya Ramanathan
Below are some highlights of my stories. We made the decision to post all of the stories we had put in print about this topic on web as well, something we don't do in most cases. Here, we knew that the large majority of our readership around this topic was online, and we wanted to make sure that our content was easily available to the public. My coverage did span print, social media and web.
Graphic by Anna Lee and Maya Fu
At the beginning of my junior year, following the budget crisis, there was set to be a school board election for certain positions on the board, which was a huge deal as many community members felt really strongly that some of the previous board members' actions during the budget crisis weren't aligned with their interests.
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I knew that our coverage was a source that the community went to related to the school board at the time, so my co-EIC and I decided to write briefs about each of the candidates running. We scheduled interviews with all of them, and they were happy to talk to us.
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This pushed me timing-wise because we had to get these six interviews finished and the stories written enough before the election for it to be helpful. I felt really satisfied that we were able to be a strong source for the community in this manner.​
Over my four years in high school, I've noticed that so many students have free hours, online classes or reduced schedules. This seemed to me to be a trend that was increasing. I started with a few interviews about this, but it kept leading me to more and more until I had talked to almost 10 people and had all sorts of interesting takes. I made sure to incorporate multimedia elements like stats, a Flourish chart and even a read-aloud option to make it more digestible to readers.
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I also created a shorter version of this story that we put on the front page of our issue for that design cycle.
Photo illustration by Kayla Fu and Ella Yip
Photo by Satvika Ramanathan
As I finished out junior year and began thinking about college applications, something I started noticing and hearing about was the importance of the statistics of schools. Acceptance rates in particular were a quick stat that I, along with many of my peers, quickly used to judge the schools. I started looking into this from the other side as well and found that many schools employed a variety of tactics to lower their acceptance rates and make them appear more desirable. This story was the product of the interest I had in that topic. I initially worked on this piece over the summer at the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute, and later edited it for my own newspaper at the beginning of the school year.
Assorted news briefs and small stories
One of the initial draws of journalism for me was the small, quick turnaround stories that would be needed for breaking news, club coverage or anything of the sort. As I started focusing more and more on editing, I've had less time to write these kinds of shorter briefs, but anytime I write one, I am reminded of the initial thrill I felt when I discovered the art that is news writing.
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There's a real joy I feel from experimenting with on-the-spot interviews, asking follow-up questions until I reach the words to help me best tell the story and finding the details will make each piece shine. These are a few examples of this type of storytelling.
FEATURES
Photo courtesy of Arya Kamat
I had the idea for this story during a fundraiser that we did in collaboration with The Communicator at Community High School. Ann Arbor and the greater Washtenaw County area has become much more reliant on student journalism as newsrooms around town have been shutting down, and the role of student journalism in this area has become very important to keep the community updated. At the high school level, we definitely look up to the college student journalists reporting on local topics, so this was neat for me from both a professional and a personal perspective. I worked on this piece with one of our website editors-in-chief, Ishaan Kamat. I did the interview with the editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily, and Ishaan interviewed the team from The Eastern Echo and Praveena Ramaswami. We co-wrote the story, and I added the multimedia aspects.
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This story received a Best of SNO.
I reported and wrote this story with Fernando Leiva in Seattle over the summer, for JCamp, a high school journalism camp run by the Asian American Journalists Association.
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This was written in August, when immigration concerns were starting to increase. Arelis Hernández, one of our mentors, sat us down and gave us a little bit of advice about safety and what to expect. I was nervous going in, but also honored to have this kind of opportunity at the high school level. ​
Fernando and I were really happy after the day reporting. Photo by Sarah Wang
Photo by Satvika Ramanathan
Photo by Satvika Ramanathan
The interview I did with the man who had delivered The Daily Northwestern around Evanston for 27 years was the hardest to obtain of any interview I've done.
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I thought of this story at first after a talk with one of our counselors at the camp who was the Managing Editor of ​The Daily, Audrey Pachuta. I was asking her about the delivery of the newspaper, and she said she didn't really know much.
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She gave me the contacts of a few people to talk to, including the people who helped with the publication of the paper, and I was told that there was this man who delivered the paper but retired that year. They said he was in Bulgaria for the summer and refused to give me any contact information or a full name. My peers and mentors at the camp said I should look for alternative stories to write.
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I began my digging, though, and after much effort and a deep internet dive, was finally able to find a contact for his daughter. I reached out to her, and she kindly helped me arrange a phone call with her father. We ended up talking for 40 minutes, and I was delighted by his kind demeanor and willingness to share his life story. I was so glad that I didn't give up when it seemed like I wouldn't be able to make it happen.
Every day of 2022, I had the same routine. Brush my teeth, get ready, and, while eating breakfast, play the daily Wordle. For almost all of that year, before saying anything else to my friends, we would compare Wordle scores for the day. I would make sure to get it done before going to school out of a fear of spoilers. So, when I saw an article in the local Michigan newspaper, MLive, about the new Wordle editor, Tracy Bennett living in Ann Arbor, the first thing that I thought was, “What if I could interview her?”
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I cold called her home phone, a script in hand and my mom by my side, my expectations low. She didn’t pick up, so I started to leave a message introducing myself as a high school journalist when I heard someone say, “Hello?” And that was where this all started.
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We set up a time to meet, and we talked. This piece was where I learned how the interview leads the story. As I was writing, it felt like I was unraveling a ribbon. I found myself going and going, with a surety that I was heading in the right direction, following a path that I could clearly see laying in front of me.
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I even got to get a tour of the New York Times building from Ms. Bennett in the spring. I was in awe of this experience.
These are some photos from the tour Ms. Bennett gave me a few months after our interview. Left and right photos courtesy of Kasi Ramanathan
Page design by Gina Ko
Page design by Maya Fu
This story was definitely a challenge. My co-Editor-in-Chief Maya Fu and I wrote it in just a few days after our planned front page story fell through. Originally, we had hoped to have a feature on the internet culture around sexual assualt with the context of the P. Diddy lawsuit, but the story ended up being a one-sided opinion piece and we felt it wasn't quite what we were wanting for the front page. Maya and I did interviews quickly and put the piece together based on everything we had. The process of writing this felt like such a blur, but I remember the interview I did with the sexual assault survivor, Molly Lipton, really stuck with me. Her story is one that I was so grateful to be able to share through this article.
Growing up in Ann Arbor, Mich., I've lived in a bubble. Most of my classmates and peers are very left-leaning, and I'm used to everyone being pretty much in agreement about major political candidates. However, I know that not everyone feels the same way about politics. I felt like our coverage at The Emery could be more inclusive of different political views, so Maya Fu and I decided to write this story about an Ann Arbor native who got involved with Republican politics at one point and now is not really aligned with either of the two major parties. Writing this story made me really appreciate the power of staying unbiased in reporting. I went into the interview with an open-mind and we were able to write a story driven by the feelings of our interviewee.
Graphic by Ishaan Kamat and Ella Yip
Photo by Satvika Ramanathan
This was one of the first pieces I wrote my junior year, and it was a great way to get back into the flow of reporting after the summer. Even though it’s a small story, I really enjoyed the process. I got to chat with the previous and new owners of one of my favorite small businesses, and it was heartwarming to see how enthusiastic everyone involved was about their job. It was a sweet article to write about a transition period that took place in the community, and it was a nice reminder of the power of local storytelling.
I co-wrote this piece with our coverage editor Anita Gaenko for our issue 2 spread in 2023. IEPs and 504s are plans that I know benefit so many students in our school, but before this, I hadn't known much about the details, and I knew many of my peers were in a similar boat. I was happy to be able to highlight these programs and learn more information about what goes into specialized education plans. It was also really inspiring to see how much care and effort the whole team puts into their jobs.
Spread design by Anna Lee
OPINION & A&E
Timeliness is something that I keep in mind with my stories, especially this style of opinion or recommendation writing. Our finals week is usually around Jan. 20, so last year, the week before midterms, I put together this multimedia post with some of my favorite places near our school for a last-minute lock-in.
Graphic by Satvika Ramanathan
Graphic by Satvika Ramanathan
This personal narrative is so nostalgic for me. Saris, although just a type of clothing, hold so much personal value, and I truly associate each item with memories and warm feelings. This was a reflection on the first time I wore a sari, and although I am now much more versed in the art of sari draping, everything I wrote about the magic of the first time I wore one holds true to this day.
This was the first time I wore a sari. Photo courtesy of Vidya Ramanathan
This viral TV show was one that I was able to hop on the bandwagon for. I loved every second of it, and I have since rewatched it at least once. This show was engaging, funny, emotional and truly intriguing. I loved the characters and the plot and the videography – I meant it when I said it was my favorite!
Official TV show poster courtesy of Netflix for show review
Design by Satvika Ramanathan
This page was born out of a love for "fun drinks" – iced matcha, brown sugar honey lattes, jasmine bubble tea – you name it. I realized that a lot of these drinks, though, were introduced to average Ann Arbor coffee shops from social media taking some culture's classic beverage and turning it into a trend. I thought that I might as well look into some other cultures' traditional drinks before they become simply the latest viral sensation.
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Being welcomed into these three homes with open arms and a cup of their drink was a delight. Food is so deeply personal, and being fed is such a form of love. I was honored and grateful to hear and taste these stories. What started out as a fun experiment turned into a product that I am truly so proud of.
SPORTS
When I was asked my freshman year by one of our editors-in-chief, Ridhima Kodali, to work on a piece with her about one of the soccer coaches at our school, I of course had to say yes, regardless of the fact that I hadn’t written a full-length sports article.
I came out of the interview so ecstatic. I immediately texted my adviser that that was the best interview ever. I gushed about it to my family. And I had a huge smile pasted on my face for a while after that.
Through the whole time we were talking, anyone would be able to immediately tell how much this coach cares for his students. He spent the whole time talking about how amazing “his players” are. His love for his work shone through. And I think that we were able to carry that love through the story we wrote after.
Working on this piece made me realize that, even if things are out of my comfort zone, it really pays off to just take a chance. This made me feel much more open to sports reporting for the rest of my high school career.​
Page design by Allison Mi
Photo by Brody Turner
Our boys varsity soccer team had a historic season this year, and although, again, we had plenty of photostories about it, I wanted to show their journey in a different way. I decided to utilize the Timeline feature from the KnightLab for this – it was certainly not easy to figure out, but I felt that it was the best way to show their efforts. I personally was super curious about how they ended up making it to states, and I felt this was a great way to break it down for our readers.
Title IX has always been a topic at my school. There are a few school-famous stories that all students inevitably hear about in some class or another, but I was curious about the work behind that and how it is still relevant today. This story I wrote featured the importance of Title IX in today's world where gender equality really isn't a guarantee in many cases.
Page design by Anjali Nadarajah, Ella Yip and Satvika Ramanathan