When Lelina Chang’s journalism teacher unveiled her Long Island Press High School Journalism award – a plaque, wrapped in bubble wrap, marking her second place finish in the competition’s student journalist-of-the-year category – Chang could hardly believe it.
“It was so big. I thought it was for the entire newspaper,” Chang said. “My mouth literally dropped. I was so shocked.”
Chang’s award was one of several won by her colleagues on the staff of Great Neck South High School’s newspaper, the Southerner.
But it was an especially welcome vote of confidence for Chang, who intends to study medicine after she graduates and said she had never considered herself an exceptional writer.
“I was never very confident with my writing since I was a kid,” Chang said. “I figured if I wanted to improve I should challenge myself, so I joined the school newspaper freshman year.”
Chang, the current student body president at Great Neck South High School, is an active member of several extracurricular groups, including the science olympiad and varsity athletic teams.
But the student media business was difficult for her at first, she said.
“I was actually kind of intimidated,” Chang said.
She began writing articles, took journalism courses, and, she said, gained confidence in her work.
In her junior year, with editorial experience and years of practice under her belt, Chang decided to submit her clips for award consideration – but without high expectations.
“I figured why not hand it four of my best works,” Chang said.
She did not even attend the award ceremony at Hofstra University, as she was too busy preparing for Advanced Placement exams, she said.
The judges liked what they saw, however.
The articles she submitted ranged in subject matter from student profiles to deeper looks at hot topics within the student body.
For one piece – a look at new school lunch calorie limits that some students said made the meals smaller and not filling – Chang spoke to students, interviewed school administrators and researched the federal nutrition regulations that had led to the change.
“It’s been a huge uproar in our school. Everyone started hating our school lunch,” Chang said. “This year, students were outraged.”
Having heard the complaints in her work with student government, Chang decided the issue was ripe for a journalistic examination.
“I knew the problem, so I was like why I don’t write a news article about it?” she said.
While Chang is currently looking at Ivy League schools at which to study medicine, she said she intends on sticking with reporting in college.
“I love it as a hobby,” she said “It’s definitely made me more confident in my writing.”
And the school lunch story has already taught her a lesson about balanced reporting often learned the hard way by journalists of every stripe.
“When I’m writing an article like this that’s so controversial, I have to get all the viewpoints,” Chang said.
