Chalkbeat is thrilled to announce our new Scholar Voices Fellowship class. In the course of the 2024-25 educational yr, we’re welcoming highschool college students from New York Metropolis and, for the primary time, from Detroit. The fellows, whose spectacular bios are beneath, will take part in journalism and writing workshops and share their authentic essays on Chalkbeat. Be sure you look out for his or her bylines within the coming months.
Fall Fellows
Bryan Campbell, Detroit
Bryan Campbell (he/him/his) is a junior at Cass Technical Excessive Faculty in Detroit. He’s a founder and secretary of his faculty’s Black Scholar Union, a board member of Cass Tech’s Future Changemakers of America membership, and a conservation intern with the Detroit Zoological Society. Over the summer season, Bryan studied Blackness, oppression, and race on the Telluride Affiliation Summer time Seminar in Maryland. In his free time, Bryan enjoys enjoying guitar and writing about politics by an intersectional lens.
Ocean Lin, New York Metropolis
Ocean (he/him/his) is a junior at Staten Island Technical Excessive Faculty. He lived in Fujian, China, for 5 years earlier than transferring to Brooklyn. At school, he’s the co-president of the handwriting membership and an editor of the scholar newspaper, The Tech Instances. Exterior of college, he volunteers for RBH, a non-profit group that helps immigrant college students. Ocean additionally began the Instagram poetry account Tide Tales to present marginalized teams, corresponding to LGBT Asian Individuals, a platform for artistic self-expression. He needs to pursue a profession in chemistry and make a distinction on the planet. At Chalkbeat, he hopes to share genuine tales regardless of residing in a society that expects conformity.
Awa Sangare, New York Metropolis
Awa (she/her) is a junior at Columbia Secondary Faculty in Manhattan. She is captivated with writing and her faculty’s debate membership. In her free time, she enjoys studying about different cultures and watching motion pictures, her favourite being “The Princess Diaries.” Sooner or later, Awa aspires to make a constructive affect on the world by her work. At Chalkbeat, she hopes to enhance her writing and desires others to study from her experiences.
Spring Fellows
Charisma Holly, Detroit
Charisma is a senior on the Detroit Edison Public Faculty Academy Excessive Faculty. She is a spoken phrase artist, public speaker, and advocate for after-school packages. Charisma was a gap speaker, alongside Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, in the course of the Uniroyal Promenade Grand Opening in 2023. As well as, she carried out an authentic spoken phrase poem, entitled “Outreach,” at Michigan’s 2024 Afterschool Day on the state capitol. Charisma additionally spends her time working in theater design and tech, volunteering with educational and holistic enrichment packages for college kids, and advocating for funding for artwork packages. Charisma writes to encourage, share her voice, and make a distinction on the planet round her.
Anika Merkin, New York Metropolis
Anika (she/her/hers) is a junior at Brooklyn Prospect Excessive Faculty. She is captivated with points that affect younger girls, corresponding to psychological well being, reproductive rights, and menstrual fairness. She is a founding member of a youth group that educated teenagers to advocate for menstrual fairness. Anika participated in a management program at a sleepaway camp within the Adirondacks for 2 summers, and this previous summer season was chosen to hitch The Moth Story Lab, a storytelling workshop for highschool college students. In her free time, she enjoys designing and creating pottery, watching and analyzing movies, and spending time with associates and her cat, Lily. Impressed by her personal expertise with faculty refusal, Anika needs to make clear the challenges teenagers combating nervousness and OCD face.
Ginger Roger Ceballos, New York Metropolis
Ginger (she/her) is a junior at Manhattan Early School for Promoting. Throughout highschool, she is raring to search out her “spark” and discover completely different alternatives. She embraces the precept that “rejection is redirection,” which has helped her navigate the ups and downs of her teenage years. Rising up in New York Metropolis has fueled her want to journey all over the world and meet folks from completely different cultures. She spent this previous summer season working at Make clear Information, the youth journalism program of Metropolis Limits, the place she wrote about among the struggles that New Yorkers face. Ginger can’t wait to see what the longer term holds. Nonetheless, she likes to dwell within the second — and hopes her writing and pictures will inspire others to do the identical.
Extra data on Chalkbeat’s Scholar Voices Fellowship program is obtainable right here. You’ll be able to learn the work of our previous fellows right here.
