The latest video project I’ve been working on is about a younger girl named Jewel Weesner, who finds lessons through a familiar teaching, but way early in life. I lad the privilege of working with a longtime friend and reporter throughout the entirety of the story, who, as usual, made the words in the print edition come to life.

I work on several projects at one time — depending on the availability of the subject, the intensity of the story, and the current everyday workload at the paper. This one started about six months ago when I met this young lady in another feature we were doing on back to school. Her words just kept ringing out in my mind (paraphrasing): “I’m going to be the first one to finish high school, even though I have an eighteen-month-old son.”