The 2024 Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop wrapped up with more career insights from Inquirer journalists.
First, students learned some basics about opinion writing from Rich Jones, managing editor of the Opinion desk, and Luis Carrasco, deputy editor of the Editorial page. They talked about the importance of approaching opinion and editorial writing with reporting and facts and adhering to ethical standards. Students learned about the separation of news organizations’ newsrooms and their opinion and editorial side.
Jones and Carrasco explained how to engage with people with different viewpoints as an opinion writer and emphasized the Editorial page’s goal of pursuing the greatest public good.
Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham joined the workshop for the last discussion of the day. She told students she had wanted to be a journalist since she was a child and explained how she came to The Inquirer through an internship when she was 19. She has always been interested in reporting about education and detailed how she worked her way through various beats at the news organization before becoming an education reporter.
She explained her job now covering the School District of Philadelphia, discussed some of the stories she’s recently written and others she’s working on, and described the relationships and expertise she’s built over almost two decades in her beat.
Since her beat is so busy, she told students, she’s had to learn how to prioritize story ideas and tips, because she doesn’t have time to write every interesting story.
She reminded students to be polite but firm when asking questions of people in power.