![]() ![]() Michael Donelan is a senior at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School. The Voice gives teens a safe place to express their opinions, which may be the very thing that many need. Teenagers so often are overlooked, and their opinions are frequently brushed aside in today’s society. Through this experience, I have seen how important the media is in letting people express their opinions and let their actual voices be heard. Lisbeth Jimenez, Adjunct Instructor, Interior Design. It has sparked such an interest in me that next year in college, I will study journalism at Mizzou. Carla Edwards, Assistant Professor, Fine Arts, BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA. The Voice is a very unique experience that I would not change for anything. It is very interesting to see how journalism can challenge you and, in the end, cause your writing and character to be stronger. Many people on staff felt very passionately about one issue or the other, but they were challenged to take a very solid middle ground in their writing. During the most recent election, when people were extremely divided around Springfield and across the country, The Voice published many stories regarding political candidates and points of view of people who supported the candidates. The Voice is also a place that embraces diverse viewpoints for the sake of healthy discussion and is a way to practice being impartial on issues. The Voice gave me a place to combine interests, where I could enjoy movies and TV and write about them in detail. I have always loved to write, but the only opportunities that I had been given in my life to write were when I had an assignment for school. I have always loved going to the movies and watching TV shows at home, so I started writing movie and TV reviews for The Voice. I began to find more enjoyment in the stories that I wrote as I became a more experienced writer and started to find the types of stories that really interested me. While I enjoyed these types of stories, I do not really think they fit my personality, and I started to explore more options in my writing. I then wrote a story about different classes that were offered in schools around Springfield. When it printed, my parents and I were very excited. My first story published in The Voice was about trends that young adult literature seemed to follow. I had not had much contact with people from other schools, and being able to meet with a diverse group of like-minded teenagers once a week was really cool. They were informative, casual and above all, they were extremely fun. I found that the meetings were nothing at all like that. I expected it to be a very structured and more rigid meeting where everyone spoke in turn about what they were working on. I was surprised by how relaxed everything was. ![]() My dad emailed Carla Jimenez, the editor, and I showed up at a Tuesday meeting to see what went on and what the creativity process was. I first heard about The Voice (not the TV show) from one of my close friends who was a staff writer at the time. Writing for The Voice has been a great opportunity and has given me a chance over the past three years to speak my mind and write about what truly interests me. ![]()
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