Just a few years go, Kadjata Bah’s youthful sister, in third grade on the time, wished to affix Simpson Avenue Free Press.
“I assumed the concept of a kid working at a newspaper was type of ridiculous,” stated Bah, now a Madison East Excessive College senior.
However then her sister, Mariama, introduced dwelling a replica of the primary version that included an article she had written.
“With the ability to witness the work of all the scholars that have been there on the time, I bought actually enthusiastic about the potential for being a broadcast author after which additionally getting the chance to enhance on a few of my writing abilities,” Bah recalled.
Seven years later, Bah had improved her writing and journalism abilities sufficient to obtain the Wisconsin Journalism Schooling Affiliation’s “2023 Wisconsin Journalist of the Yr” recognition and is now competing for the title of Nationwide Excessive College Journalist of the Yr by way of the nationwide Journalism Schooling Affiliation.
Bah just lately spoke with the Cap Occasions in regards to the award and her budding journalism profession, as she hopes to pursue English, journalism or “one thing in that realm” at a to-be-determined school subsequent yr.
How did it really feel to get the popularity because the Wisconsin youth journalist of the yr?
I have been doing this work for a extremely very long time and it is simply grow to be one other a part of my life at this level. To obtain this recognition for one thing that is so acquainted now to me, it feels actually good that the work that I do, whereas it’s work, would not actually really feel like a job and to even be celebrated for it’s nice.
Do you keep in mind what sorts of tales you wished to work on whenever you first began?
I used to be actually, actually, actually into writing about Black historical past on the time, as a result of that was one thing that I assumed wasn’t actually being coated at college. So I took a number of my time finding out and studying about Black historical past and that was what I used to be actually keen about writing about, as a result of I wished individuals to additionally hear the tales that I examine, tales that I assumed did not get as a lot consideration or obtain as a lot recognition as they wanted to.
What are a few of the greatest classes you’ve got realized as a journalist at Simpson Avenue?
Actually emphasizing the significance of neighborhood in journalistic work, actually understanding the individuals that you just’re working with, understanding the neighborhood that you just’re reporting on and reporting in has been so necessary. With the ability to work at an workplace as numerous as Simpson Avenue is has given me entry to so many various views and I study one thing new from my friends each day that I am there, each time I learn a brand new article. Even individuals as younger as 8 years outdated have one thing useful to contribute to the writing and to the tales that we inform.
Additionally I’ve simply gained a a lot stronger understanding of Madison. I wasn’t all that accustomed to what was taking place with the town, clearly, as an 11 yr outdated. However being in Simpson Avenue, I have been uncovered to so many extra of the issues and the problems which are impacting the individuals in our metropolis and impacting us personally as college students, as individuals of colour. With the ability to get a extra complete understanding of these matters just like the achievement hole, like science of studying, like PFAS within the wells and matters like people who usually go over individuals’s heads has simply been such an exquisite (expertise). Simpson Avenue has actually grow to be a useful resource for me on on these matters and the significance that they maintain and what we will do as Madisonians.
I might additionally say, a giant a part of my job now at Simpson Avenue is doing what the people who welcomed me in did for me once I was first beginning out. One factor that I at all times return to is the teenager editors and the way huge of an impression they made on my life and my aspirations now as a journalist that I did not have once I first began. They have been college students and writers and other people and I realized so much from them by way of working with them and likewise in a approach being friends at such a younger age. So now with the ability to do this for youthful college students as a teen editor, with the ability to see the expansion that college students make of their studying and writing is one thing that I hope that I can impart on different college students as effectively.
Is there a single story that you have carried out that stands out to you as particularly necessary?
I do not assume I can decide one particular one, however I do assume that any story that I get to do the place I’m out in the neighborhood, out in Madison speaking to individuals, seeing what they do, listening to what they do, with the ability to discuss to them and hearken to their experiences and the load that they maintain in Madison that folks usually may not see are tales that I at all times, at all times, at all times love doing. I simply love listening to individuals’s tales after which with the ability to share these tales with the individuals in the neighborhood.
Do you might have anything so as to add?
I like utilizing any platform that I’ve to speak about what issues that Simpson Avenue does for the neighborhood and simply bringing alternatives for younger individuals to proceed being learners and proceed being creators and writers outdoors of college. That was one thing that I actually took benefit of in with the ability to study what I wished to study once I was first beginning out… the work that Simpson Avenue does, it really works.
I’m simply glad that Mariama introduced that newspaper again right here when she did.