Take a look at reporting projects and research endeavors I’ve been a part of. Click here to view my résumé.
Perry Township (2018)
Working with members of the Perry Township/Southport Historical Society, I detailed 200 years of history on Indianapolis’ south side in this book published by Arcadia in August 2018. For two years, I dug through city records, newspaper clippings and filing cabinets to collect information about the early history and transformation of Perry Township. I also conducted dozens of interviews with local residents to document their stories and preserve memories they’d kept through photographs. Throughout the process, I worked with an editor at Arcadia to edit text, organize images and meet publishing deadlines.
Check out local media coverage: ‘Way Back When’
The Changing Influence of the Press (2018)
During my senior year at Ball State, I worked on a comprehensive, research-based honors thesis with another student. The published paper explored the historical intersections of American news media and public political perceptions from the 17th century to present day. Key components of the thesis discuss ethical boundaries for publishers and editors within news organizations and the evolving effects editorialization (both intentional and unintentional) has on the public.
Honors College Undergraduate Research Fellow (2016-2017)
I conducted research relating to sexual minority groups alongside Dr. Craig Webster. Through this work, I helped assess sampling methods and developed a survey which was distributed to research participants internationally. Further, I helped code the questionnaire’s results and began putting together the data for an academic paper. As a fellow, I completed Collaborative Institutional Training Institute (CITI) training and presented findings in a peer forum.
See my fellowship results here.
Read some additional research here.
Ball State at The Games (2016)
Through the Ball State at The Games program, I was a reporter at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. For nearly a month, I wrote stories on-site and on strict deadlines. Some of my pieces focused on athletes and events in Olympic Park, while others explored life and culture in Rio and the surrounding communities. My work from this reporting was featured in USA TODAY, Indiana Public Radio, ABC South Bend, WTHR Indianapolis and Outfront Magazine.
Water Quality Indiana (2016)
This immersive, semester-long project was funded by the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. In collaboration with four of my peers and guided by Dr. Adam Kuban, we sought to produce in-depth reporting about the hypoxic region—also known as the “dead zone”—in the Upper Gulf of Mexico. In doing such, we traveled to Louisiana and across the Midwest to learn from scientists, policymakers, farmers and others. We worked with scientific datasets and explored how agricultural practices in the Midwest affect communities and watersheds downstream. Our completed work included a 30-minute documentary film, written pieces and an interactive website.
Read some of the local media coverage.
Excellence in Journalism & ASNE-APME Conference Coverage (2016-2017)
I’ve worked as a reporter at several media conferences across the country. In 2016 and 2017, I covered the ASNE-APME conferences in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., respectively. In 2017, I was selected to serve as a student member of the Excellence in Journalism newsroom for the Society of Professional Journalists conference in Anaheim, California. Work at these conferences consisted of conducting interviews, writing stories, shooting and editing video and creating interactive graphics.
See ASNE-APME conference coverage from 2016 and 2017.
See Excellence in Journalism coverage here.
Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act Internship (2016)
I spent a semester at Ball State as a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) intern for the Applied Anthropology Lab. I assisted with the documentation of funerary objects (mostly lithic artifacts) associated with human remains, catalogued and organized human remains and assisted with tribal repatriation consultations. I also assisted with database entry and digital media work relating to NAGPRA.
More about NAGPRA work happening at Ball State here.
Everyday Life in Middletown
This full-semester immersion project was also made possible by the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. Over the course of four months, I joined 14 other students to co-create a documentary film, as well as a website, to represent data collected through a student-led observational study of Muncie, Indiana. I was directly involved in the website creation process, and my responsibilities included co-designing the website, writing content, interacting community leaders and leading the promotions and website committees. Additionally, I played an active role in the coding of data collected from study participants.
The Facing Project (2014-2016)
As a student in the Ingelhart Scholars Program at Ball State, I joined The Facing Project to produce a book compiling personal stories of depression for Facing Depression in East Central Indiana. I worked one-on-one with a storyteller to compose a first-person narrative piece, and I also assisted in organizing the storyteller event. I later participated in the Facing Cancer and Facing Racism projects in Muncie, Indiana.