My two and a half years with Daily Tar Heel (DTH) was my first introduction into hard news reporting. While with the newspaper I was included in our print editions multiple times, routinely being included as the opening story under my desk’s page (the DTH City Desk). I also had the privilege of being included in DTH’s Housing Edition for my feature on the Covenant Place assisted living facility in Chapel Hill. I was lucky to have the opportunity to interview a mother-daughter duo that lived in the facility, Barbara E. Ivey and Barbara Ann Ivey. Barbara E. had lived in the facility since its opening in 1998.
Read the full article & check out DTH’s Housing Issue, published in 2023.
My reporting with Daily Tar Heel also introduced me to local political reporting. Every DTH member attends public hearings & meetings as well as report on local elections by gathering interviews at polling locations. While at the Daily Tar Heel, I reported during two separate municipal elections cycles in 2021 and 2023. One of the elections I reported one happened to have one of a particularly large voter turnout for a Chapel Hill municipal election, garnering 2,000 more votes in 2023 than in 2021. Part of this was due to our mayoral election as well as a newsworthy Board of Commissioners election where many of the candidates were divided on the rate of development of the town of Chapel Hill.
Read more about this election turnout here and more in the Nov. 15th issue.
Another sample of my writing was included in DTH’s Oct. 18th issue and centered around the Blue Ribbon mentor-advocate program, which pairs students of color in the CHCCS system with a mentor and advocate that not only provides guidance but communicates with school faculty and staff on behalf of their mentees up until their graduation. I had the privilege of speaking with Camille Berry, a BRMA mentor-advocate on her experience with the program.
Read more about BRMA and the full Oct. 18th issue here.
