Junior Grace Del Pizzo recently participated in a six-week long journalism program called “Newstudies,” sponsored by Philadelphia’s local KYW news radio station. After submitting an application about why she wanted to join the program and obtaining a teacher reference from Mr. Clementi, Grace was accepted into the program.

Every Saturday morning, Grace and fellow participants traveled to KYW’s headquarters in Center City Philadelphia, where they listened to panel discussions led by guest speakers in the media industry. One of these guest speakers was Lu Ann Cahn, who has worked in Philadelphia for about 27 years for WCAU-TV. In fact, Cahn even gave Grace a great piece of advice about the TV/reporting business during a private conversation, telling Grace, “ The journalism and reporting career is difficult, but you can’t take the easy way out. You have to go the hard way to get good results.” When recalling the experience, Grace described it as, “pretty awesome!” as she grinned from ear to ear.

In addition to guest speakers, the program offered a variety of opportunities to learn about careers in media. The program covered all types of media and reporting, from radio hosting, to disc jockeying, to writing,

When asked which area of media she is most interested in pursuing, Grace responded that she enjoys sports journalism, particularly football. With a strong mathematical background, Grace hopes to pursue a career involving the statistical and analytical aspect of sports journalism in football. And though Grace had always been a strong writer, it wasn’t until she came across an online Eagles blog that her mom told her, “You know you’re really good at this football thing,” to which Grace replied, “You know, maybe I can actually make a career out of this!”

So, when Grace found out the topic of her final project for the program, she knew exactly what to write about. Each participant was required to write a radio story about something that was happening in his or her own school. Grace chose to write her story about Coach Gretta, who is currently battling breast cancer while also being the head coach of our successful Field Hockey and Lacrosse teams. Grace’s radio story recently aired on December 1st on KYW’s evening show. Her story was even awarded the program’s Richard Monetti Memorial Scholarship for $2,000!

With a unique and rewarding experience under her belt, Grace has found her passion and is now thinking about ways to pursue her love of sports and writing.

To check out Grace’s story about Coach Gretta, click the link below!