Ema Dorsey

I decided to take AP art this year, and it has helped me grow skill and technique-wise. I am currently building an AP portfolio and will continue to do so this summer. I will be taking the class next year as well.

This is my third year with this organization. This year, I focused on coordinating stream team schedules, and managing water sample data. I got to go to Goleta to help manage a stream team session and also got to work in their office in Santa Barbara more frequently than last year, managing records and entering data, and I am soon going to learn how to update the website.

This is my fourth year doing community service for the Surfrider foundation, and it has been incredibly rewarding as always. Being surrounded by environmentally conscious people reminds me to be more earth friendly. This year I worked managing the beach cleanups and water data testing. We also planted native coastal plant species on the beach. 

This year, I worked on getting my facts right in my stories and rechecking my sources to make sure that I portrayed them accurately. I want the Foothill Dragon Press to continue to be a reliable news source that not only represents people accurately, but was also sensitive towards the people mentioned in stories.

For example, in the beginning of the year, when I wrote about Alyona Brody and international adoption, I was asked my her mother to see the final story. I was confused. Should I show it to her, or should I say that it was not her right to edit anything? I consulted my editor, who told me to ask why. When I asked her she said that she wanted to make sure that her child was represented well in the article. Since it is a matter concerning her child, I shared the article with her, which actually helped. She pointed out that my article was tinted with bias and did not represent the positives of some Russian orphanages, which is what most American news sources were doing at the time. So I fixed this portion and did more research, and it helped the article look more reliable and truthful.

Another way I have helped to improve the site's reputation as a news source is checking the backend and making sure things go up. After becoming editor, I have helped editing on the backend weekly, and will continue to do so the rest of this year and next year as well. 

I hope to maintain the site's reputation as not only a fast and reliable news source but one that is ethically sensitive and I want staff that is willing to listen to both sides of an issue to make sure both are accuratelyportrayed.