Author: Allison Dodson

Ava Nabavian was a part of the 2022 session of WJMC. She is so ecstatic to be coming back to help everyone with this experience. This conference helped her realize which direction she wanted to go in for Journalism- Natural Sciences. The people and advisors helped Ava come out of her shell and become a better Journalist.

Aurora Nieves is a 2022 Youth Correspondent and a Venezuelan immigrant. She moved to Florida when she was almost 9 years old and has lived in Miami ever since. Aurora is a film production major, but she plans to specialize in editing and storytelling. She is a dual enrollment student at Miami Dade College and plans to graduate with her high school diploma and associate’s degree in June 2023. Aurora loves learning languages. She thinks communication is a vital part of our world and believes that we should learn various ways to express ourselves. As of right now, she has studied 5 different languages: Spanish, English, French, Greek, and Japanese, and she plans to start learning sign language next. Aurora loves listening to music and creating her own music as well, but she thinks the music she listen to the most are soundtracks and original scores. She also loves making people smile and laugh!

Ashanti Noble is a 2022 wjmc alumna who attends McEachern high school. She is a part of her school’s yearbook staff, and after high school, she plans to attend college and major in multimedia journalism. Ashanti’s dream career is to become a sports or political journalist and also be a photographer. She hopes to become a content creater and an editor for corporations such as CNN or Warner.

Annabel Lawrence is a high school junior and a 2022 National Youth Correspondent from Boise, Idaho. She has been a staff writer for her highschool’s paper, the Timberline Paw Print, for two years now, and it has fostered Annabel’s love for telling the stories of her community. In her free time, she enjoy playing volleyball for her school team, reading, and volunteering at libraries and elementary schools. She is so excited to be a part of the YAB so she can help ensure that students from around the country will have the same transformative experience as she did at WJMC.

Angelisse Monge is currently a senior at Amazing Christian School in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. She attended WJMC in the summer of 2022 and it was an experience that truly shaped her and helped her recognize her passion for journalism and writing. She has always loved writing and telling stories which is why she helped co-found her school’s student newspaper and why she currently holds the positions of both Editor-in-Chief and Staff Writer. During Angelisse’s free time, she loves to read, listen to music, go to the movies, and explore the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. WJMC was one of the greatest weeks of her life and she hopes she can help and encourage other students to attend and experience this wonderful and memorable program.

Alexandra Henriques is a graduating senior at Mahwah High School in New Jersey. She’s had a passion for writing and a niche for journalism since she was young but became interested in journalism as a career after a sophomore year class. In the summer of 2022, she attended the Washington Journalism and Media Conference, where she learned about the importance of local media and made many new friends. When Alexandra has free time, she often writes poetry or goes on long walks around her town.

Alyssa Trahan is from Lafayette, Louisiana and a junior in Southside High School where she broadcast’s for her school’s football team. She is also in art club and the president of her school’s embroidery club. Outside of school, she’s interested in photography and art. She hopes to have a career involved with photography in the future.

Alex Gribb is currently a junior at Cherry Creek Highschool in Colorado. She’s the current Opinions editor for her school’s magazine and he really enjoys writing reviews. If she’s not studying or writing, you will probably find her at Taekwondo working towards her third degree black belt. There are few things she enjoys more than music, with her favorite band being Weston Estate.

Abby Cabrera is currently a junior at Saint Anthony’s high school. This year she was on her school’s Varsity A tennis team, took five ap courses and all honors, and participated in numerous clubs, including her school’s newspaper, the Paduan. In addition, she has taken AP Seminar, AP Research, and Saint Anthony’s Independent Science Research course, where she wrote eight research papers and learned many presentation skills and how to write academic research papers. She loves reading fantasy novels and her favorite authors are Rick Riordan and Victoria Aveyard. WJMC was a life-changing experience for her. The connections she made are still strong today, it’s made her look at life through a whole new lens, and she is so happy she gets to come back for the next group to experience what she did.