Curtis Staples is a student at Salem High School. Photo by Shaban Athuman

By Hannah Goode, Northside High School

A common stereotype of teenagers is that they spend their time over the summer playing video games and never going outside. But this is not true for Salem High School student Curtis Staples, who is booked for three summer camps this summer.

He has a large interest in basketball. He plays for Salem, collects basketball cards, is hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps and play in college, and will be attending two basketball camps this summer. One will be at Northside, and the other will be at Liberty.

He also likes to stay well-rounded, however, and will also be attending a medical camp, along with the Minority Journalism Workshop.

The medical camp will be this summer at Virginia Tech over the course of five days. At the camp, he hopes to learn more about medicine and “look at dead bodies.” He also plans to study medicine in college.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

Lauren Sapp graduated from Floyd County High School this year. Photo by Shaban Athuman

By Melissa Powell, MJW co-leader

For the last two years, Lauren Sapp spent Friday nights in Floyd County under the football stadium lights, directing the movements of her high school band.

But this fall, Sapp is leaving her small town for her freshman year at Emory & Henry. There, she said, she hopes to eventually find another leadership role to take the place of being a Floyd County High School drum major.

“I had to make sure people followed the rules, make sure other section leaders had no questions,” Sapp said. “We had a ton of underclassmen so there was more pressure.”

Sapp, 18, said she enjoyed taking on the responsibilities, though she sometimes missed her first two years in high school, marching next to her friends and focusing on her footwork and flute.

After also spending four years on her high school yearbook committee, Sapp said she plans to major in communications at Emory & Henry. Though Floyd County High School did not have a newspaper staff, Sapp said her teachers encouraged her to pursue writing. She said she is undecided about a future career, but she is interested in learning more about newspaper journalism.

Emory & Henry was the perfect choice for Sapp because the school reminds her of her hometown, she said. Born and raised in Floyd County, Sapp said the school’s population of about 2,500 students will make her feel at home.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

Melissa Powell is a reporter for The Roanoke Times. Photo courtesy of Twitter.

By Lauren Sapp, Floyd County High School

From the flatlands of Hattiesburg, Miss., to the rolling hills of Lexington, Va., Melissa Powell ventured onto the campus of Washington & Lee University with her sights set on journalism.

The summer following her junior year, Powell journeyed from her hometown of Hattiesburg to attend the Summer Scholars Program at W&L. This program, she regrets, no longer exists. For one month, Powell lived in the dorms on campus and took classes centered on journalism. Along the way, she fell in love with the campus, the people and the subject. In May 2012, Powell graduated from W&L to further her career in journalism.

Her career in the newsroom ignited when she started a post-grad internship with The Roanoke Times in June 2012. The internship extended her experiences working for the paper, and Powell was eventually offered a permanent position on the newspaper staff, where she’s grown to love her fellow reporters working as a part of the New River Valley Bureau.

Now, at age 23, Powell currently covers stories related to the courts system, and enjoys those topics more than news or public safety concerns. Working has been her priority and an immense time commitment, but Powell hopes to take up hiking after her parents relocate to a cabin in Meadows of Dan, Va.

Powell’s family, parents Bill and Pam and brother Charles, are a tight-knit bunch.

“We all are particularly close,” Powell said. “He [Charles] just lives far away.”

Charles works as an aerospace engineer for Boeing in Arizona, so Powell does not have the opportunity to visit as much as she’d like. Her parents are currently in the process of moving to the state, and have been settling in for about three weeks, so Powell is grateful in being able to see them more often.

This profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

By Hannah Schwenk, North Cross School

Through his camera lens, Shaban Athuman not only found an artistic passion, but a way to communicate in a strange new country.

Shaban Athuman

In 2008, Athuman came to the United States with his parents and younger sisters from Tanzania.

Leaving Africa was a difficult challenge for him, and though Athuman now is fluent in four languages, Kirundi, Swahili, English and French, at the time he knew little English.

All though spoken language was a barrier for Athuman, he found another outlet for his thoughts, opinions and interests through photography.

“I enjoy photography because it gives me chance to speak without words,” said Athuman.

The now rising senior at Salem High School has high aspirations for a career in photojournalism, and with his charismatic and easygoing personality, it is no doubt that he will excel at whatever he decides to pursue.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

Hannah Schwenk is a student at North Cross. Photo by Shaban Athuman

By Shaban Athuman, Salem High School

Hannah Schwenk is the front page and centerfold editor for her school’s newspaper.

She enjoys playing basketball and soccer. Her soccer team was self-coached. Her team was an underdog, and they were invited by another team to make themselves look good. Little did they know that they would be up against a well-trained and well-coached team.

“We were the underdog without uniform, and the other team was matching on everything to the shoe laces on their cleats,” she said. But her team became more victorious.

Schwenk has been out of the country multiple times. At age 6, she went to Canada, and at age 8 she went to Canada and later went back at age 12. Schwenk plans to go to Ghana this summer with a family friend who will be going with his band.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

Hannah Goode is a student at Northside High. Photo by Shaban Athuman

By Curtis Staples, Salem High School

When you first meet Hannah Goode, she appears to be a typical high school girl. After further investigating, you come to notice that you could not have been more far off.

Goode, who attends Northside High School in Roanoke, has a passion for singing. Goode sings a great deal and absolutely loves it. She even composes her own music, which comes naturally because of her other love: writing. The average person would not know this though due to Goode’s quiet demeanor and stage fright.

Goode hopes to someday get over this fear and perform in front of a large crowd. If singing doesn’t work out, Goode says that she might be interested in journalism. Either way, we hope to see what life has in store for her.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

Natalie Meyer. Photo Credit: Alyson Nuckols.

By Alex Moore, Lord Botetourt High School

The highlight of someone’s life can be a first year out of their comfort zone.

Natalie Meyer, a rising senior at William Byrd High School, says the highlight of her life is being new to the public school experience.

Diversity, class choices and technology at her new school have differed greatly from her old private school.

The major reason for her switch is the increased sociability and opportunities in drama. Her social understanding has changed drastically for the better.

She enjoys not having to see the same people every day and knows much more about social norms.

“I’m incredibly sheltered compared to a lot of them still,” said Meyer.

Although Meyer has been attending private school since the fourth grade, she’s relieved at the impact it has made on her life.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more updates!

By Natalie K. Meyer, William Byrd High School

Alex Moore is a student at Lord Botetourt High School. Photo courtesy of The Edge

Blonde hair thrown over her shoulder, Alex Moore, 15, elaborates on her passion: music. A rising sophomore at Lord Botetourt High School, the aspiring musician is planning to teach herself guitar this summer to accompany her lyric writing hobby.

Moore, a Roanoke native, plans on keeping her mind active throughout the lazy days of August by reading textbooks on psychology, as well as her fledgling college search. Her sights are aimed high: George Mason University, where she hopes to pursue a vocal performance major.

Choir has been an intimate part of Moore’s middle and high school career; she has been participating in school-based choir since sixth grade.

Alongside her ambitious summer projects, Moore plans on finding a summer job baby-sitting, a job at which she is proficient enough to be allowed to teach the children to swim, a monumental task, for they are “terrible [at swimming], there’s no other way to put it.”

Dressed in a fiery crimson, Moore is ready to attack her goals for the summer.

This student profile was an assignment during our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop. Check back for more stories and updates during the week!                                                                                                

Students participating in our 2013 Minority Journalism Workshop will be helping to keep The Edge blog active this week as they learn about the newspaper business from journalism professors at Washington & Lee University and reporters in The Roanoke Times newsroom.

Their first assignment was writing profiles about one another so keep checking back to meet each of our student journalists!

Story and Illustrations by Alexis Holland, William Byrd High School

Spring means something different to everyone. I wanted to portray different encounters I had with Spring during this past April.