personal conflict going on,” he
said.
Still, talking with Trump
supporters was reassuring. “I met
a lot of people who reaffirmed
the decency I see in this country,”
Soderberg said.
The Spoke produced several
stories, including an op-ed
titled “Zero Expectations” and
written as if the Statue of Liberty
was speaking. “Put Your March
Where Your Mouth Is” urged
students to continue protesting,
while “Donald Trump is Making
America Great Again” by guest
columnist Leo Chen asked them
to be “stronger together” for the
new president.
Goldenthal says his inauguration
experience prompted him
to cover a local school board
election in greater depth last
fall, including podcasts with all
seven candidates.
“I figured if people aren’t aware
of what decisions are happening
in their own neighborhood,
then we don’t stand a chance
at understanding politics on a
national level,” he said.
“Going to the inauguration
definitely solidified my desire
to be a journalist,” he added. “I
think that it’s one of the most
important jobs in our society,
especially in this day and age
when there is so much chaos
going on politically and socially.”
The Outlook:
“It’s America
—get on with
your day”
demanding that Schumer be
ejected from the stage.
A cub reporter on his first
big story, Lukaszewicz was
undeterred. He approached
security officers (who declined
to be interviewed), a U.S. border
patrol officer (he said okay) and
a National Guardsman, who
described a year of training
leading up to the inauguration
and warned that “they would
allow protesters, but only to a
point.”
If you’re a self-described “pretty
liberal” student journalist from
the San Francisco Bay Area
covering a populist president
who dislikes the media, it
probably doesn’t hurt to play
varsity basketball.
Gabe Lukaszewicz, 17, of Aragon
High School, fits that bill. At 6
foot 5 inches and 210 pounds,
Lukaszewicz “personally never
felt threatened” or unsafe,
even when Trump supporters
surrounding his group shook
their fists when Sen. Chuck
Schumer, D-NY, mentioned gays
and lesbians during his speech
at the inauguration.
BEATRICE MOTAMEDI, CJE
Beatrice Motamedi is executive
director of Global Student Square, an
international student journalism network.
A former staff writer for the San Francisco
Chronicle, UPI and WebMD, she is a Dow
Jones News Fund Distinguished Adviser
and was named California Journalism
Educator of the Year in 2012. Motamedi
was a 2015 Knight Fellow in journalism at
Stanford University, where she co-directs
Newsroom by the Bay, a summer digital
“The crowd just went off,”
Lukaszewicz remembers.
“They were chanting, ‘Where’s
the hook? Where’s the hook?,”
media program for high school students.