MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Nick Fiorillo is a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School. The Washington Journalism Education Association recently named him as the state’s journalist of the year for 2015. Fiorillo, 17, is the editor-in-chief of his school’s student newspaper. He was also chosen to visit the White House and meet the president as part of the United States Senate Youth Program. Fiorillo hopes to pursue a career in public policy.
Question: How’d you get into journalism?
Answer: I joined the school newspaper, the Hawkeye, my freshman year as a local news reporter. I wanted to give it a try because my dad, John Fiorillo, is a business journalist so seeing his example got me excited about it. The experience has shown me all of the opportunities you have to meet interesting people and tell amazing stories as a journalist.
Q: How’d you go from being a staff reporter to overseeing other Hawkeye journalists?
A: I started shadowing the local news editor and took over that position my sophomore year. I then started training for the editor-in-chief position, which I took as a junior.
Q: What changes have you made as editor?
A: When I became editor, we shifted to a web-first mentality. Now, we’re focusing on our Internet presence and social media for breaking news. We’ve moved the monthly print edition to more of a news magazine format. That’s allowed us to cover breaking news in real time.
Q: How has that web-first mentality allowed you to more effectively cover the news?
A: We had a bomb threat at our school this winter. We were the main source of news for both parents and students. The administrators quickly learned that the best way to communicate was through us. The bomb threat turned out to be nothing but with all that’s happened recently, such as the shooting in Marysville, people are really concerned when they hear about any threat at a school. We were able to provide the facts instead of rumors people hear from friends or on social media. It has also led to better coverage of other high school events.
Q: I understand you’ve won the state journalist of the year award for 2015. Tell me about that?
A: Because I won for Washington state, I’m now up for the national award. It’s a pretty amazing honor because you have to go through a rigorous process to apply. I included in an online profile of my work a lot of different types of stories I worked on. One of the most impactful was covering the death of a student at our school. It was really difficult but it really made me grow. Seeing all the people who were affected was really transformative as a journalist and as a person.
Q: I also understand you recently visited the White House. What was that experience like?
A: I went to the White House as part of the United States Senate Youth Program. It’s a week-long paid trip to Washington D.C. Two student delegates are chosen from every state. It exposes students to different branches of government and introduces them to leaders in public and private service. We met senators. We had lunch in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room. It was the most incredible week of my life.
Q: What was the best part?
A: We met President Obama. That was amazing. It’s been a dream of mine since fifth grade. We were in the East Room and President Obama came walking toward us. There was a collective ‘ahh’ from the students. It was crazy to see the that president is a real person. He spoke to us and answered questions. When he was asked about his legacy, he told us to worry about what we want to do in the world, rather than what title we want to have.
Q: What do you hope to do in the world?
A: I’m pretty sure I’m going to the University of Southern California to major in public policy planning and development. It’s focused on creating policy programs to solve real world problems. After that, I’ll probably go to law school. I want to work in public service and make policy to deal with our generation’s biggest issues: climate change and criminal justice reform.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports
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