This is a story I wrote with my co-editor, Meghan, for Issue 7 of The Tower on the role of our community in the gentrification of Detroit, particularly through the sociological lens. This article pretty much became my life for the entirety of its production as I not only wrote the story, but I also took all of the photographs and designed the spread. As two privileged individuals, Meghan and I felt it was important to cover how we contribute to the gentrification of our neighboring Detroit, and how we, as a community, can support the city without displacing its current residents, which proved to be an extremely interesting story that I'm glad I got the privilege to write and produce.

Again, this is a feature I wrote with Meghan about environmental racism in Michigan. (Can you tell we work well together?) This was also a particularly interesting story as Meghan and I were again granted the opportunity to truly examine our privilege as people living in Grosse Pointe, and particularly as white people who have not experienced environmental racism. Another cool thing about this story was that it ended up introducing me to one of my best friends, Hunter, whose aunt was kind enough to speak to me about her experiences while living in Flint (particularly about the ongoing Flint Water Crisis).

This article is a breaking news follow-up feature about our district's decision to return to full-time, face-to-face learning last spring, which ended up winning first place at MIPA in that category. After being approached by our previous editors-in-chief about covering the story, I was able to get my first taste of true breaking news coverage, and absolutely loved the feeling of being "in the field". Following the publication of the initial brief, I was asked to write a follow-up feature, which I delivered, and ended up being extremely happy with the coverage I was able to get and the recognition I received for one of my "core" journalistic experiences.

Similarly, this article was also recognized at MIPA, and was given third place in the informational feature category last year. I wrote this piece with our current web editor-in-chief, Paige, who was also a fantastic partner. Despite our editors' avoidance to cover COVID-19 last year out of fear of overwriting it, it proved necessary to discuss the polarization of the topic in light of the election. I ended up getting to talk to political specialist, Niel Sroka, which was an extremely rewarding experience, and I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to interview him and broaden our knowledge on the topic. Out of the many articles I've written throughout my time on The Tower, this one was definitely most of the most engaging to cover.

Although I don't often watch documentaries, "The Social Dilemma" was superb. This review also received an honorable mention at MIPA last year, which I contribute to the fact that I loved the movie so much. It's a lot easier to write about something when you feel passionately about it, which, in turn, leads to better writing. I had a lot of fun writing this review, and I hope to have the opportunity to write more reviews this semester, such as through our biweekly "Staff Spotify Recommendations".