During the second week of the 2025 Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop, Inquirer staffers shared what it’s like to work in journalism.

The day kicked off with a discussion with Kevin Riordan, a business and real estate reporter; and Samantha Melamed, an investigative reporter.

They emphasized the importance and impact of the stories they and their colleagues write, gave students a glimpse into their reporting processes, and told students how they got into journalism. Riordan spoke about the ways being a reporter has changed and stayed the same throughout his decades in the journalism industry. Melamed gave students insight into her recent investigation into juvenile justice reform.

John Duchneskie, The Inquirer’s graphics editor, then showed writing students how he puts together visually appealing and informative graphics that can tell and/or enhance stories. He gave them access to the Datawrapper website that Inquirer journalists use to create charts and graphs. And he helped them think through how they can use data in the stories they will write during the workshop.

Meanwhile, Inquirer photographer Tom Gralish talked to the photo students about how he does his job and about his decades as a staff photographer.

Gralish and Duchneskie then joined political reporters Julia Terruso and Fallon Roth to speak to all students about their experiences covering the 2024 presidential election.

In the afternoon, Danese Kenon, The Inquirer’s managing editor for visuals, led an interactive session about ethics in the photojournalism profession. She taught students how to think critically about photos, what separates photojournalism from other types of photography, and what questions to ask themselves when they look at a photo.