Image: 2021 editorial staff of the Titan Scroll and LSWest online. Photo taken by Carol Ullery.
When given the prompt for this blog post, I had so many different ideas of what to write. Do I talk about all of the amazing journalism educators who ran seminars at conventions that expanded my journalistic horizons? Do I talk about the Pulitzer Prize winners I had conversations with about how exactly they did the amazing work they did? Or do I talk about the woman with the coffee behind the desk in the corner who was there for me through all the ups and downs of my journalistic career so far?
All I need to know I learned in Journalism Class
When I walked into my very first journalism class on my very first day of high school, the first thing I noticed was the potent smell of coffee coming from the room. I walked in and saw her, Mrs. Carol Ullery, sitting behind her desk talking to a senior editor of our paper.
There is something magnetic about her kindness, the simple act of sharing a cup of coffee with a student will always stick with me. Anyway, our first topic on our first day was the basic values of journalism.
Ullery stopped on honesty. She says, “no matter what else you learn in this class remember that honesty is the most important value of journalism. Our job is to tell the truth, the whole truth, and to defend the truth. Journalists are the watchdog of democracy. To be a watchdog, you have to be honest.”
This point stuck so clearly in my mind over four years that it even led me to have to be honest against a member of my own staff. On my very last day of high school, we released our senior issue of the paper. We had been working on this massive edition for over three months and all members of the staff were extremely proud of the hard work that had been done.
We handed out the paper during senior breakfast and finally the entire senior class -and by extension, the world- could see the work we had been doing all this time. A few minutes later we had to break it up to do senior check out.
I got put in the same station as one of the girls who had been featured in the paper. I knew her pretty well so I went up to talk to her. She was crying. Her story had been completely fabricated by a member of our staff and no one, not even our editor in chief, had figured it out. So I did what I had to do.
I text Ullery and our editor Anna and I tell them everything that Sadie (the girl who had been featured) had told me. Ullery said she would take care of it ASAP and she thanked me for my quick work. Seeing personally how dishonesty in journalism can affect a person, even in something like a high school paper, is something that I will never forget. Sadie deserved better. I wanted to do better.
Ullery made no qualms over the situation. She was quick, decisive, and made sure that the entire staff knew what was going on. Even though I’ve graduated from her program, her belief in honesty will stick with me as much as the coffee chats. Ullery helped us make hard decisions and offered a keen ear to any problem and I will forever be grateful for her support.
Today, September 20th, 2021, is the release date of the first Titan Scroll since I graduated. It’s a little bittersweet; hopefully, the current staff takes the lessons Ullery teaches to heart.
