Anjali Kakarla
Writer, Reporter, Editor-in-Chief
MIPA Selected Work For News Writing
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NEWS
Along with another journalist on staff at The Communicator, Serena O'Brien, I went to a protest organized by Planned Parenthood of Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan's Diag shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Armed with a camera and a recording app on our phones, we covered the protestors, the anti-protesters, and the government officials speaking at the event.
Awards:
- Columbia Scholastic Press Association: 1st place Gold Circle Award, Digital Media Story
- National Scholastic Press Association: 4th place Award, News Photo; Digital Story of the Year: Multimedia Story
At our weekly Monday brainstorm sessions, I pitched a news article on the new vegan lunch options AAPS was implementing. As I interviewed vegan students and staff at our school it became more of a News Feature focusing on why the interviewees had decided to become vegan and how they felt about the new additions to the lunch menu at CHS.
FEATURE
The theme for the second edition of The Communicator magazine my freshman year was "Lost and Found." Although I was terrified, I pitched the idea of writing a story about Kristin Roberts a mother who had lost her son Miles to suicide and created a foundation aimed at reducing the stigma around mental health in her son's honor. The story idea was green lighted and it was one of the most powerful interviews I have ever been a part of.
I co-wrote this article with Ailish Kilbride on how the introduction of online learning platforms has drastically changed education at CHS. In our interview with CHS Dean Marci Tuzinsky, we uncovered how the implementation of the learning platform Schoology began during the 2020-21 school year. “It was like starting a whole new school – we didn’t know what problems to anticipate," Dean Tuzinsky said.
Awards:
- Michigan Interscholastic Press Association: 1st place, Newswriting, Informative Feature
As the pandemic shut down standardized testing sites across the country, many colleges implemented a "test-optional" policy. This new approach by institutions across the country left students in a state of confusion. Could colleges hold not sending in a score against an applicant? How could students determine which score was high enough to send to a college? Do colleges consider a students income level and access to SAT prep courses when evaluating their score? I interviewed three students and CHS counselor Brian Williams to hear their opinions on this controversial policy.
Awards:
- Michigan Interscholastic Press Association: 1st place, Newswriting, In-depth Feature
Seeing my teammate Jillian Boynton suffer an ACL tear and a months-long recovery process was difficult. However, I didn't understand the full magnitude of Jill's story until I sat down to interview her. The half an hour interview I had planned for turned into over an hour. Jill emphasized how sports had been her whole life until the injury. "It felt like part of my identity was gone," Boynton said.
When I read the story package "Tiny Love Stories" on the New York Times website, I knew it would be a great addition to The Communicator. Fellow Communicator journalist, Serena O'Brien and I wrote five 100-word storied about pockets of love within the CHS community and published this piece on Valentine's Day.
OPINION
We have a constant opinion piece in our magazine called "Agree to Disagree" where journalists argue opposing viewpoints on a controversial issue. I argued against fellow journalist Serena O'Brien on the topic of school start times. Using narratives and statistics to back up my argument, I wrote why I believe schools should move the start times.
Awards:
- Michigan Interscholastic Press Association: 1st place, Newswriting, Pro-Con Opinion Columns
For the History Edition of the Communicator Magazine, I decided to write about CHS's choice to never implement Advanced Placement classes into the curriculum, despite all other Ann Arbor Public Schools high schools doing so. I interviewed three CHS teachers who taught at CHS ranging from the 1980s to early 2000s. They described their argument that students learn better when there is a range of intellectuality in one classroom as opposed to separating students into AP and regular level classes.
I wrote this article in the wake of the 2020 election for the Communicator's Politics edition on why I believe the Electoral College is an outdated system that provides voters in some states more power than those in other states. This was the first opinion article I had ever written and it was a great stepping point for me to learn how to argue for what I believe and having supporting evidence to back my claims.