The Power of the Pen For a Young Creative Mind
(Lawer is depicted on the left in the black glasses)
“Because I’m not good at communicating my feelings through words, I do it through art,” said Addison Lawler, a junior at Sun Valley High School in Aston, Pennsylvania.
Lawler uses art as a form of self-expression. One of her pieces, The Rabbit Hole of Mental Health, is a multipart work that reflects her emotional state throughout the year. However, despite her love for the creative process, Lawler doesn’t plan to pursue art professionally.
She believes the art world can be overly competitive and biased, making it difficult for young artists to feel accepted.
“In my ideal world, the art world would be more open and supportive,” she said.
Lawler sees similar bias present in journalism, but rather than discourage her, it has inspired her to …
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Brandon Wallace on the overlap of Sports and Politics
The first time Brandon Wallace saw the intersection of sports, society and politics was during his childhood in Wisconsin, when his white friends theorized that Black people had an extra muscle in their leg—believing that explained why they were “naturally” better at sports. Eventually, they asked Wallace, who is biracial, if he had an extra muscle in just one of his legs.
That early moment would foreshadow the focus of his career. On July 8, 2025, Wallace, an assistant professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University, delivered a lecture to students in the High School Journalism Institute about the deep connection between sports and politics. He explained how sports can serve both as a platform for activism and as a tool for those in power to promote certain ideas.
Wallace believes that sport is …
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The Job Market and AI: Reduced Opportunities or a Helping Hand?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate has risen 0.5% since June 2022, and as of June 2025 the unemployment rate is at 4.1%. With the use of AI also rising, those looking for jobs are left wondering how AI will change the future employment field, and if it is currently continuing to the struggling job market, although its influence or lack thereof is highly debated.
Recently Duolingo, a language learning program, faced backlash after an internal email about shifting to an AI-first schedule and firing and replacing contractor roles with AI. This recent controversy has increased the debate about the use of AI throughout the job industry.
“ I hear a lot of people say it’s taking jobs and I haven’t really understood that… I don’t see it replacing, like actual human touch or creativity and things like …
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