An Orange Park middle schooler is one of nearly three dozen new reporters chosen for the 2015-16 Scholastic News Kids Press Corps.
14-year-old Alaa Osman is an eighth-grader at Orange Park Junior High.
Osman was among 200 budding young journalists vying for a kid reporter spot. And it appears she made quite an impression on Scholastic News Editor Suzanne McCabe and the rest of the selection team.
"She seems unusually smart, very bright," McCabe said. "Her favorite book is The Goldfinch by Donna Tarte. And we ask our applicants to tell us who has inspired you most in life. For Osman, it was Leonardo da Vinci, which we thought was quite interesting."
And, Osman has already received her first reporting assignment.
"Currently I'm working on raising awareness about pollution in the St. Johns River," Osman said.
Osman says she hopes her story about the St. Johns River will motivate other kids to try and make their world a better place.
"They might be inspired to see what issues in their own communities they could help out with," Osman said, "and so gradually, you know, we'll have this generation of aware, environmentally aware children that will start to make a difference."
According to Scholastic, stories by the kid reporters are published in its classroom magazines which are read by millions of students nationwide. The stories are also posted on Scholastic's website.
