COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
FACING THE FRESHMEN
After the FCPS School Board voted to overhaul the Jefferson admissions system for the Class of 2025, the pushback was swift. Everyone from Tucker Carlson to school PTSA officers decried the changes, declaring that it would lower the academic standards of the school. As a student journalist, though, I wanted to give the Class of 2025 and associated faculty a fair chance to tell their own story. As part of our October magazine issue, I worked with the rest of the print editorial board to explore the way that Jefferson's most diverse class in recent history was adapting to the school.
FACING ACADEMICS
The first part of the story that we tackled was classroom dynamics. I wanted to discover how the Class of 2025 was adapting to Jefferson's academic standards, and whether any changes were being made to ease their transition from middle school to TJ. After speaking to faculty and students, I compiled my information into a piece on the freshman class's performance in the classroom. While writing the story, I was careful not to draw any sweeping conclusions on my own. Rather, I told the narrative of the freshman class's academics through the people involved -- including teachers, students, counselors, and administrators.
IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT
I also decided to include a Q&A with a group of three friends that hailed from historically underrepresented middle schools. I felt like this section added a more human element to the story. After joint-interviewing the three friends, I included anecdotes about their struggles and success so far, and how their respective middle schools had supported their academic endeavors. Though I initially considered writing the section as a traditional feature, I ultimately opted for a Q&A with the students, as I wanted the story to be told using their own words.
With both Jefferson and Arlington undergoing significant change, I ventured through my local communities and told the stories of traditionally underrepresented populations. In order to tell these narratives with respect and accuracy, I conducted a wide variety of interviews to go along with thorough primary and secondary research.
ONGOING STORY:
ORAL HISTORY OF TJ ADMISSIONS
For the past several months, I've been working on an oral history of TJ admissions, which tells the story solely using quotes from the people involved. In the wake of the most recent changes and the continued skepticism around it, I decided to delve into past attempts to change the admissions process in order to understand why TJ has struggled with a lack of representation for so long. Though this story has required far more research and time than I ever could've imagined, I'm grateful for all 27 interviews that I've done so far, and I can't wait to see what the final product looks like.
INTERVIEWING POLICYMAKERS
For this piece, I've spoken to a total of eight people who had a role in shaping TJ admissions policy. This includes School Board members, superintendents, and School Board members. Below, I have included two excerpts of those interviews. The first excerpt is from a conversation with a former Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) superintendent while the second is from a former FCPS School Board member.
INTERVIEWING STUDENTS, ADMIN & TEACHERS
I've also spoken to 12 former student, principals, and teachers at Jefferson. In order to contextualize the attempted admissions changes, I needed to give the reader a sense of the representation and social environment at TJ throughout the years. The below excerpts are from interviews with a Class of 1998 graduate and a Class of 2004 graduate.
COMPILING NEWS ARCHIVES
INTERVIEWING ADMISSIONS EXPERTS
Tutoring center founders, teachers at feeder middle schools, and legal professors all made up the rest of my interviews. For more information, I also spoke to a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission (which was consulted in 2004 to help improve diversity at TJ) as well as a self-noted expert on Jefferson admissions. Below are excerpts from the latter two interviews.
Beyond interviews, I've compiled around 20 samples of old Washington Post and tjTODAY news articles that discussed admissions changes at time. I plan to include a few of these in the piece to give a reader a sense of the news coverage of Jefferson admissions throughout the years.
DIVERSITY IN ARLINGTON SERIES
Outside of TJ, I've worked with the Arlington Historical Society to document changes to the county's makeup over the years. Arlington, over the last several decades, has transformed from a predominantly rural area into one of the vibrant and diverse communities in the DMV. As both a journalist and an Arlington native, I decided to dive into the details of that transformation.
Asian-American Immigration in Arlington
For my first article in the Arlington Historical Society newsletter, I explored the history of Asian-American immigration to Arlington. In order to write the piece, I spoke with an expert on Arlington's now-extinct Little Saigon as well as the leader of the Arlington Education and Employment Program.
*PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Promise of the Pike
Once termed "the world in a zip code," Arlington's Columbia Pike is one of the most diverse areas in the world. In order to document that diversity, I ventured into the shops, restaurants, and coconut water stalls of Columbia Pike, and spoke to their owners to find out their experiences and future goals within "The Pike." I managed to overcome language barriers by completing a few of my interviews in Spanish, which I'd taken in school for three years up to that point.
*PHOTO COURTESY OF LLOYD WOLF
Freedman's Village: 1863 to 1900
My most recent article for the AHS newsletter was on Freedman's Village, which was a temporary establishment for newly-freed slaves in Arlington county. To research the piece, I visited the Black History Museum of Arlington and spoke to the curators there. Over the course of the article-writing process, I became well-versed on one of the most integral parts of Arlington's history as a county.
*PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EDITORIAL ACTIONS
CRACKING THE CODE
For the September print issue, we had two staffers write a story about Lauren Delwiche, who became the first female lead sysadmin in Jefferson's history. Our hope for the story was that it would document her rise, and the challenges and successes that she faced on her journey. However, the writers' first draft failed to provide sufficient insight into Delwiche herself. Rather, it featured a disproportionate amount of content from her sysadmin co-lead, who is a guy. After sitting down with the staffers, we rewrote the lead and the following paragraphs to more heavily feature Delwiche's perspective. The first draft of the article is in the photo gallery on the left while the final draft is in the gallery on the right.
RECRUITING
Going into the new school year, we needed to advertise tjTODAY to Jefferson's incoming class. To that end, I put together a 30-second video that highlighted the important work we do as Jefferson's storytellers. Given that a large and diverse group of freshmen joined our staff this year, I believe that my video was at least somewhat effective in recruiting new student journalists.