Writing

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‘I’M THE FUTURE’: WINONA STUDENTS TALK ABOUT RACE, Winona Daily News

After seeing news of Michael Brown’s death and following some of the events around the country that followed, I decided to pitch a project about the experience of race in a small Minnesota town. I spent several months meeting with a social justice group at the local high school, learning about the students and listening to their stories. I shared them as part of a project we called “Young, Diverse, Hopeful,” to speak to the experience of being a student of color in a mostly white high school in a mostly white town.

See it in print: A1, A4, A5.

HUNT FOR HEROES: BUFFALO COUNTY MAN ORGANIZES GROUP TO HELP CONNECT DISABLED VETERANS, Winona Daily News

One of my first assignments after I arrived in Minnesota was to go buck hunting with a group of wounded veterans from around the country who fought wars in many different times and places. It was the first time I’d ever been hunting, the first time I’d ever held a gun, and an assignment I’ll never forget.

STATE CRACKS DOWN ON RAW MILK DISTRIBUTION, Vox Magazine

I read a brief in the Columbia Missourian about a small raw-milk dairy farm getting shut down in the spring of 2013 and thought there might be more to that story. I spent the next few months exploring the history of the debate over raw milk — if it’s safe, if it’s not, and whose job it is to decide.

See it in print: story spread and cover.

COLUMBIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACHERS REFLECT ON GROWING POVERTY RATE, Columbia Missourian

I was shocked when I heard that nearly 40 percent of students in Columbia Public Schools qualified for free or reduced-prices lunches, an indicator of family poverty. In this story I dug deeper to find out what that number meant to the teachers who work most closely with those students and whose job it is to make sure they succeed anyhow.