Editorial: Don’t count out the generation coming up
Danalla Dearmon is at the desk she works at while she is a Summer Youth Employment Program intern with The Chronicle this summer
This is 2018. The president of the United States is calling a former White House employee a dog. Police have killed numerous black people before they had trials to determine their guilt or innocence. Nazis, white supremacists and other racists march boldly at rallies, even across the street from the White House. Tariffs are killing jobs for people who need them while the rich are getting richer.
Yet, despite all what appears to be doom and gloom in the United States, life goes on, especially for 162 teens who are part of the Winston-Salem Urban League’s Summer Youth Employment Program this year.
The program serves low-income teens ages 15 to 19. Each teen earns a stipend while learning career skills from employers during the summer. The Chronicle is one of the employers.
We had the pleasure of teaching Danalla Dearmon, who is a rising junior at John F. Kennedy High School interested in a health career.
We asked her to write an essay about why she wanted to come to The Chronicle. She told us that she “always had a passion for writing since elementary school when you had to write in your journal different types of topics your teacher gave you.” Sounds good.
We learned that Danalla appears to be a quiet young woman who goes about her tasks and get things done. We also learned that she can write. She has written a story for The Chronicle that we plan to run in the newspaper. She was able to combine her health care interests with her writing interests. She received a taste of both worlds while at The Chronicle.
We also found out that Danalla, 15, is practical and smart. She said in her essay: “Being an intern at the Chronicle is going to be good on my transcript.” And she says she is known in her family for asking a lot of questions and for not stopping until she gets the answers. She sounds like a reporter to us.
No matter what Danalla plans to be when she is older, she appears to have a basic foundation as to what she wants to do. To us, that bodes well for the future of this up-and-coming generation. Let’s hope more members of her generation will follow suit.
