Dominion High Senior Named Top Student Journalist By PBS NewsHour

STERLING, VA — The PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs named a Sterling high school student as one of four Student Journalists of the Year. Karen Ramos, a senior at Dominion High School, was recognized for many reporting achievements, including a September 2019 interview with teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and contributing to a report on computer science training for elementary school students in Loudoun County that appeared on the PBS NewsHour.

Ramos, along with the three other student journalist honorees, represent different regions of the country. Each journalist "embodies the mission of public media to engage, inform and educate," the Student Reporting Labs said.

Ramos, who was one of 25 student fellows selected to attend the fifth annual Stuudent Reporting Labs Academy last summer, said one of the reasons she got into journalism was to tell the stories of people who are doing important work.

The PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, with more than 150 schools and clubs across the country, works with 3,000 students each year to produce original reporting on important local issues from a youth perspective.

"Media has such a big influence in today's world and I think that if youth got more involved in things they cared about, and began speaking up about it, they can bring a lot of awareness to something that is important to them and that can lead to big things that can change the world," Ramos said in a Q&A published by the Student Reporting Labs.

Ramos and the other three winners — student journalists from Ohio, Texas and New Mexico —will be honored at the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) conference in Arlington at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott on Jan. 26. The NETA conference is a gathering of local public media stations from across the country dedicated to education programming, services and outreach.

"We are honored to recognize the SRL Student Journalists of the Year during our conference this year," NETA President Eric Hyyppa said in a statement. "Our theme for the conference is The Future of Education and Media. Our four honorees embody how bright the future of Education and Media will be."

Ramos named her father, who immigrated to the United States from Honduras as a child, as her role model. "He worked so hard and now, he is a U.S. citizen with a strong family, a great home," she said in the Q&A with the Student Reporting Labs. "[H]e has really helped his family in Honduras to get out of poverty."