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Zelie is a senior at Elkins High School. She is a passionate, division-one band student and an aspiring photographer. She has volunteered at many community organizations, such as Hands to Paws and Red Cross Clubs. She has used this opportunity to get closer to the community through news at the Fort Bend Star. They have learned the ins and outs of printing, legal loopholes, the structure of articles, and even had an article published. She will be attending the University of Houston to study English, photography, and photojournalism. She is looking forward to applying her new insight with her artistic eye in the future.
“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
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Mentor
Stefan Modrich
Fort Bend County is one of the country’s most diverse and fastest-growing counties, and the Fort Bend Star has had its pulse on the area since 1978. We cover Sugar Land, Missouri City, Stafford, Richmond, Rosenberg and other communities in the county, along with the issues and events that are most important to their residents, from local government and development to culture, schools and sports.
Project Abstract
“Journalism in the Times of Covid-19” is a study on the effects the pandemic had on the industry. Through surveys, events, and experiences, I was able to study the positive and negative impacts of the virus and subsequent shutdown on the community print industry, the people within it, and the technology that was able to keep everyone together through freezes, multiple quarantines, and much more. Overall, this technology helped hold the industry together, both socially (between each other) and professionally (with their audiences). This is significant, as many people listed mental health and isolation as issues in free response surveys. In addition, social distancing and stay at home orders helped speed up the switch to a more online presence for many, as it was the only way to stay connected both ways. In this presentation, I will outline exactly how and why some things occurred, and have quotes from journalists themselves about their experiences, as well as some of my own!
