Reporting & Writing
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Lawrence Mamiya Inducted To Hall of Honor
News
The Hall of Honor, established in 1986, was a way to honor alumni who have excelled in their careers and made significant contributions to the community. Being able to write about an alumni who was being inducted was an honor. I have watched my previous EIC write the Hall of Honor articles. I have always admired the way he wrote about them, and how much emotion are in his writings. When it was finally time, another reporter and I, worked together. I learned how to collaborate with my classmate on the article, helping one another in areas where we struggled. We made sure the article did not just recount what he did, but honored the person he was; to show why he deserved to be in The Hall of Honor. I have learned how to tell his story from the memories of his loved ones and the people he helped.
TMLC Students Journey in the Summit
Feature
McKinley has different academies that are dedicated to helping students find their passion in different occupations, and the Tiger Media Learning Center Academy (TMLC) is one of them. I first discovered SHOOTS Summit through my digital design teacher, and was instantly intrigued with wanting to know more. Originally, a different Pinion reporter was writing about SHOOTS, but I offered to help with organizing interviews and writing parts of the article. I knew I had to be mindful since I also participated in SHOOTS. So I focused on getting interviews with other students who attended and won some challenges. Talking to the students who participated and hearing the joy and enthusiasm in their voices made me start smiling. In the parts I have written for the article, I made sure to show their personality and how they felt during their moments at SHOOTS.
Guilty or Not Guilty?: Tanaka’s 10th Grade Honors Takes Odysseus To Court
Feature
One of my longest articles, which required the most time and effort to write. When I found out an english teacher I knew had been doing mock trials for a while, and The Pinion never wrote about this before, I had to do something. I interviewed past students and current students as the lesson progressed, I talked to the same current students multiple times before, during, and after the trial to see how there thought process changed throughout the trial. I was even allowed to be a part of the jury and take pictures of the trial. While to outside students it may have been another assignment, I could see that these honor students were having fun; also applying the skills they learned over the school year in the during the trial. I had to learn how to craft an interesting and compelling story that hooked readers in each second. Students often say nothing interesting is happening in their classes, this article is a testament to showing them wrong.
Pinion Staff as Book Genres
Photos/Art, Life as a Student Journalist
What first started as a passion project in freshman year, where I drew The Pinion staff as different themes [ex: school stereotypes and superheroes] each year, slowly evolved into something more. Originally, I was just going to draw the staff as their favorite book genre and leave it at that, but I wanted to do more this year. I wanted to understand why it was their favorite book genre and share it with McKinley. Not only did it help me understand my fellow reporters more, but also allowed me to show McKinley a small glimpse into the reporters' interests beyond their articles and staff profiles. It was such a spur in the moment, but in the end, I enjoyed every second of it. I did a Google form at first to get info such as favorite color, book genre and outfit inspirations they had. After that, I set up a time to interview each staff member. For the final touches on the art, I had each of reporter sign their name under their character. Seeing the final product of all them filled my heart with joy.
‘Epic: The Musical’
An Emotional Rollercoaster
Review
"Epic: The Musical" was a concept musical album that I fell in love with over the summer and wanted to share it with others. When it came time to pitch new story ideas, I wanted to write my first review, and Epic recently published there final songs over the winter. I poured my heart and soul into the review, along with the fan art featuring the music sagas [small batches of songs]. Since this was my first review, my advisor gave a mini lesson on how to write reviews. Even with the mini lesson, I made it up as I want. Something that helped me write this article was applying things I have learned from my AP Lang class. When I used the class material, writing the review came naturally to me. Looking back on the article, I wish I talked more about how the music told the story, including snippets from some of the songs I love and why I loved them.
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2025 Hawaii High School Journalism Awards – Review – Third Place
Understanding Those Who Self Harm
Opinion
With stigma surrounding mental health, I sought to help students and faculty alike understand those who struggle with their mental health. Writing this article about self-harm not only included research from online sources, but also my own experiences with self-harm. I visited why people may self-harm, different ways people may self-harm, and ways one can support and help redirect the urge to self-harm. Besides researching and using my own personal experiences, I also reviewed journalism ethics to determine how much information I should share about myself. I had to make sure sharing this experience was okay with my parents. Plus reflect on how sharing such senstive and personal stories could affect me in the future. While I had to cut some things out and simplify some experiences, the final version was something I'm proud of. Upon it being published, I've received positive feedback from students, with one student saying that they are happy that someone is writing about self-harm.
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2025 Hawaii High School Journalism Awards – Illustration – First Place
Cherishing Furry, Feathered and Scaly Friends of McKinley
Feature
I have always been an animal lover, fawning over people's pets. From dogs and cats, to birds and turtles. I have heard from my other peeersabout different people on campus with pets, which inspired me to write this article. Through the interviews I have had with two students and a teacher, I was able to learn more about the pets they have while also sharing their pets with the rest of the student body. From a student who takes care of a cat on campus to another student who recently added a tortoise to their family, I was able to share their pets to other animal lovers at McKinley.
A Cosplayers Point of View
Feature
Cosplaying has always been considered a nerdy hobby or even odd to others, but not to me. After going to Kawaii Kon, an annual three day celebration of Japanese culture, anime and pop-culture, I was able to see many cosplayers being themselves, I knew what I was going to write for my next article. I wanted to show those who do not cosplay what it was like to be cosplayer, to take a look inside their head and thought process. I was able to interview two student cosplayers along with a teacher who I did not know cosplayed. It was interesting to learn about how they did cosplay, despite having other obligations. Writing about their love of the craft along with some of their struggles when it comes to cosplaying, further enforced my belief that they are human just like everyone else.
It Still Hurts
Opinion
When I wrote this article, I did not want it to be brushed off as another article on understanding the stigma around mental health. I wanted this article to reflect that the complexity of the subject, as I used my own personal experiences. This article went through multiple revisions, drafts, and edits; it helped me understand the ethics of sharing my own personal experiences within an article. I was in such a dark place at the time, I poured all my time and effort into making the article the best it could be. I wanted to be as vulnerable as possible so people could understand how harmful the stigma surrounding mental health was. I've had to get this article checked not only by my teacher, but my parents and therapist at the time to make sure it was alright. In the end, it was all worth it. I've had friends and people I didn't even know at the school tell me how they were happy to see an article like mine in the newspaper; happy that such a heavy topic was being disucssed.
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2023 HHSJA Opinion Writing Fourth Place
2023 HHSJA Illustration First Place
Artist Vs AI
Opinion
One of the second articles that I have spent the most time writing, researching, and thinking up drawings for. At the time, AI was becoming more popular and prevalent in the art community. I wanted to say something about it as an artist myself. When the next pitch session came around, I already knew what I wanted to write about. Being an artist is already hard enough if you want to do it as a career, or even just do it as a hobby. Now, with AI being able to create something for free at a click of a button, stealing other artists' work did not sit right with me. In the article, I went over how the AI programs work, how artists are trying to fight against it, and what it means for artists in the future. I wanted to educate people on how AI works, along with why artist are upset and fighting against it. Once the article was published, I was also told by other students and faculty on how they enjoyed the article. I have also gotten emails from people not from McKinley saying how they enjoyed my article from the writing to the artwork. Reading those emails and seeing how AI is progressing today made me want to revisit the topic of AI art in a new article.