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Hello, my name is Grady Leatherwood, and I am a rising senior at Calhoun High School in Calhoun, Georgia. I have an immense passion for sports and writing, and I aspire to become a sports journalist in the future. Despite the many programs and opportunities my school offers, they do not offer a school newspaper or journalism class. As a result, I took matters into my own hands by starting a social media account to document Calhoun’s football team. During the games, I post live score updates keeping the community informed. Additionally, I create social media graphics for the account. I have run the account for two years now and have gained a decent following. As for official school activities, I have participated in my school’s marching band for four years as a trumpet player. This upcoming school year, I am ending my tenure with the band to pursue other opportunities, such as a potential internship with Calhoun’s local newspaper or starting a school newspaper. I am also a member of numerous clubs at my school including Future Farmers of America (FFA), Beta Club and National Honor Society. For the past two summers, I have worked for my school’s summer feeding program, making and providing meals to children in need in the community.

I have always loved reading and writing, but I didn’t realize my passion for journalism until around the seventh grade. I’ve always wanted to have a job working in sports and when I realized that I could make a career out of watching and writing about sports, I have made that my goal ever since. I love the prospect of telling the stories that makeup the framework of sports. Every team, athlete, coach and fanbase have a unique story to tell, and I want to uncover their narratives and share it. I want to be able to capture of all the emotions that sports elicit and encapsulate them into writing. While I have no “real” experience with journalism, I sometimes write in my free time for fun about the sports games I watch. My academic goal is to attend the University of Georgia and ultimately the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

My favorite thing to do is watch sports, especially with my father. Sports are such a key element of my life, as they have provided some of my best and worst memories and have strengthened the bond between my dad and me. My favorite teams are the Georgia Bulldogs, Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and Baltimore Ravens. Some of my earliest recollections are watching the Bulldogs play football on Saturdays and attending Braves games at Turner Field with my dad. My favorite sport to watch fluctuates and depends on the season. I enjoy traveling, especially to different sports venues. I have visited 13 states and Washington, D.C.. Every place I go, I like to take pictures to document my journeys. Additionally, I enjoy watching all different kinds of movies and television series, especially ones inspired by comic books. My favorite movie is “The Wolf of Wall Street” and my favorite television series is “Ted Lasso”. I like to go to the theater and watch new movies with friends and then write reviews on Letterboxd after. I spend the rest of my free time listening to music, reading, and hanging out with family.

Born to an immigrant family I was taught to to work hard and keep my head in the books. with little room for mistake. I went from gifted classes once a week to the #1 public school in Georgia, and since then academic accomplishments have not only been an expectation but a part of day to day life. Because of this my free time was filled with STEM clubs and technology camps instead of things I felt interesting.

June 8, 2026

Bonjour! I’m Uriana Powell, I am a current rising 9th grader in the state of Georgia and I have so many fun facts about myself, interests and Hobbies, it’d be impossible to list them all. Although if I had to choose a handful, I’d reveal that I actually received my Georgia medal and award of biliteracy in IB French, I have a deep interest for any Biology or Chemistry, and I love sports as I do track, swimming and diving, competitive gymnastics, sideline and competitive cheerleading, flag football and golf! Something I absolutely love is scrapbooking, I’ve been scrapbooking for almost six years now and I love decorating pages and adding my own photos. Speaking of photos, photography has also always held a place in my heart, I am an experienced and recognized Photographer and Videographer as a job, as I usually always have some type of camera on me. I early developed a love for music, I’ve played the violin for 4 years and the harp for 5 years. Even though I have the best built in biological friends in the world, I’m the youngest sibling of five…which immediately makes me the favorite!

I always enjoy having the opportunity to serve my community, I volunteer as a mentor for various programs at my church and am a part of the student council and serve in the youth ministry. My church, My school, My everything, is always so special to me so I always try my best to keep myself Included…Which leads me a while back when I decided to join my school news crew with one of my best friends. We were ecstatic to be able to try this out for the first time. Everyone could only apply for one role, so I applied for anchor.

I unfortunately did not make anchor and ended up in charge of the camera. Even though I started as the camera person, always the sidepiece, overlooked, and misjudged… I eventually managed to work my way up until I finished my 8th grade year as the producer, head anchor, planner, script writer, and the most long lasting members of my news crew as I created so many new traditions, and got so many new students and peers included in the news crew process all in three months. Now I’m continuing my journalism journey by attending this UGA journalism camp on a full scholarship- which I’m so grateful for. I’ve always wanted to attend UGA as a school since forever and so I’m so excited to be here.

I’ve always had an interest in journalism, I’ve written over four chapter books in the French language about various topics and people absolutely have loved them, I used to have a blog named “The 4 Consecutive Minutes” where I would talk about four recent important topics in exactly four minutes, I began this in 4th grade and lately took a break because it got really cringy. Yet, On another note I love writing, I write books, poems, stories, or almost any literary piece of work. I love all types of media and journalism and hope to keep working in the field.

Hey, I’m Evelyn Jeffords! I’m 16 and am a rising junior at Whitefield Academy, which is located in Smyrna Georgia. My whole life I’ve always lived in Georgia and I currently reside in the city of Atlanta. Some of my activities I partake in and interests are tennis, babysitting, and exploring new food genres and restaurants.

At the age of 7, I was introduced to tennis and have been playing ever since. I love getting to spend time outside while playing, getting the extra exercise, and the connections you get to build with other players. My freshman and sophomore year of high school I made the tennis team for JV and won an end of year award for team leadership skills. Participating in tennis has helped me become more competitive and more encouraging and leading towards my other teammates.

Another one of the hobbies I do in my free time is babysitting. I love getting to spend time with younger kids and do something creative with them while hopefully teaching them something new. I find babysitting also helps me learn as well, and tasks me with situations where I have to show patience and discipline and babysitting gives me an outlet to work and grow on those skills. I was once faced with a difficult situation while babysitting, where a kid had accidentally fallen and injured himself. We then had to drive him to the ER and it was very scary for me, but I had to stay clam to comfort him and make sure he knew he was going to be okay. That experience taught me how to remain calm and composed in anxiety inducing situations and helped set me up for any similar future situations I might be faced with.

An additional hobby of mine is going out in the city and exploring new cuisines and flavors in unique restaurants. In Atlanta they have a very large selections of restaurants ranging across hundreds of different genres of food. Whenever I can, I try to go out and experience a new place to eat. At times when I am unable to go to a new restaurant, I always try to get a different meal than one I’v had before if I’m eating somewhere I’ve already been previously. Going to new restaurants encourages me to branch out more and experience new cultures and tastes.

My hobbies aren’t just activities to keep me occupied on days with little to do, they help shape me into the person I am. As I continue to grow I hope to continue to expand my reach and gain more interests and new hobbies.

Hello! I’m Becket McDuffie, a rising junior at Palos Verdes High school, California. I am heavily involved in my school whether it be lacrosse, academics, or clubs. I am a part of a national charity league where I can serve my community and do my real passion, which is helping others. This correlates perfectly with my passion for journalism, which began with my middle school teacher Mrs. Demerjian who taught Sea King News, the schools news program. At first I just took the class because I heard it was easy and I didn’t have to do anything, but my teacher slowly pushed me to create news packages around the school. I began to enjoy finding the story in things and in people and was eager to learn more. I became the anchor for the schools news show and that is when I figured out this is what I wanted to do in my future.

Fast forward to high school, I tried out for Live From 205, one of the top-ranked broadcast journalism programs in the country, knowing I had a very slim chance of making it. Everybody knew that freshmen never made it, but somehow, with the help of Mrs. Demerjian, I became one of two freshmen in the class. Being one of the only freshmen was tough in a class full of seniors, but I had an amazing teacher in Mr. Beaucar to guide me. Over my first two years, I was a sports reporter. I reported on sports games, learned how to find a story in anybody, and how to work in teams to meet a deadline.

At the end of my sophomore year I decided to take another leap. I tried out for general news anchor which was a position in the past that had always gone to a senior. Once again I did not expect to make it, but somehow, I landed the position. So next year, I will be the second ever junior general news anchor in the program. I will continue to take risks and grow, and hope to study journalism either as a major or a minor at a four year university.

Hi, my name is Bristol! I’m from Danielsville, Georgia and I go to Madison County High School. Im going to be a junior in High School. I want to go into the MotorSports Industry but more specifically the Nascar Industry.

I love Nascar. The energy and passion the fans bring to the race and even if you’re new or have never been before, the fans are so welcoming and helpful. The drivers are so close with the fans, even if they have a bad race or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, they still have a smile on their face. The MotorSports industry is so interesting to me because of all the different cars and people you meet.

Another dream is I want to be in the booth with the other drivers because to be in the Nascar booth you have to know what your talking about and be able to explain to the fans what is going on and what is going to happen before it actually happens.

I want to attend the University of Tennessee, but if I have to I would also love to go to the University of Georgia because both have amazing Broadcast and Media programs to get the job you want. I have always wanted to race a race car like my dad did and even though he didn’t make it to the Big Dawgs. He still races like its the most freeing thing in the world, like that is the only time he is actually peaceful. My mom on the other hand, She works at the University of Georgia in Grady. She is also a big Nascar fan and she is the one who opened my eyes to Nascar and ever since we have been the biggest Nascar nerds and we almost compete with each other to see who knows about it. My dream is to be able to bring my mom to all the tracks and experience all there is to experience in Nascar to going inside the shops and meeting the drivers to just being in a pit box with a crew chief hearing and seeing everything that goes into the race car, team, and technology behind it.

I am a joyful person, who loves the loud sounds of a race car to how much work goes into the races, and I love to hear people actually voice there struggles and how things impact them because in experience talking out about things and actually feeling you can trust someone is the most comforting feeling ever.

To close about myself, I really strive to be the best I can be and I work hard for everything I want to achieve even if I think I can’t do it, I still try. I want to learn everything there is to know about the MotorSports media and how to continue to learn and grow into the person that I have been trying my hardest to become.

My name is Addison Pendegraft, I’m 16-years-old and a rising Junior at Johns Creek High School. I was born in a village in New York, but then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and I’m now living in Georgia. I want to be a journalist, preferably a section editor, and an editor for novels! And I’m a really big reader, usually reading five or six books at a time. I also really like to volunteer, and I’m managing a book drive right now, which is very exciting. I’ve always enjoyed literature since I was little, often I’d rush through my handwriting classes in favor of getting more reading time. Despite that, I’d like to think I’m quite a diligent person in school, with my super stellar grades and nerdy glasses. And I perform aerial silks, which is like airborne gymnastics and very, very tricky. Though, I used to be much more active, playing soccer and horseback riding, before my asthma got worse as I grew older.

I joined my school’s newspaper class as a freshman, so I had to apply during 8th grade, which was a bit intimidating as a middle schooler. I was encouraged by my 9th grade honors English teacher, who was super supportive of me, even going so far as to write me a recommendation letter for my application. I was pretty nervous to join, but it turns out that I thankfully wasn’t the only new member. Apparently, all but one of the staff from the previous year were seniors or had quit, including the teacher. The returning member also didn’t receive any training, so it was a huge learning curve for us. Our class was also super small, with only 11 staff members total, so we each had to write and design two articles and pages per issue, all while figuring out the grammar rules, how to use the website and keeping a pretty strict schedule. A really notable issue for us was learning how to use Indesign, which gave the entire class a lot of trouble and is the vain of my existence along with chemistry. We eventually figured it out though, and if I could give a class an award for “most Improved” that year, I’d think we would be the winners.

My sophomore year went a lot smother, we got more staff members, going from 11 to 17! And I was appointed to the section editor of A&E and News sections in the newspaper, which was really thrilling for me. Editing has always been a passion of mine, so to be able to edit so often has been a real gift. I’ve also been assisting with and managing our newspaper, The Chariot’s website, which has been a cool learning experience for me and will definitely help me in the future. Last year we were able to double the amount of issues printed and heavily improve our writing, design and the overall theming and topic of the newspaper issue. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot more with this bigger staff this year, utilizing all of the trial and error we endured before. And it’s been such an incredible experience getting to witness my friends, who also only joined the class in the previous year, grow in skill and passion as we’ve gotten to know each other.

Now I’m a rising junior, and our staff will have 27 members. I truly can’t express how proud I am of the original staff and friends for how much we’ve grown together, especially during such harrowing times. I’m really happy that I was brave enough in 8th grade to apply. Not only has this class given me a bunch of opportunities, but it’s allowed me to make amazing friends, which I’m so grateful for. Next year, when I’m a junior, I’ll continue my role as a section editor and be promoted to the official manager of the website with a small team to lead. I’ll also be co-managing our social media with a fellow rising junior and probably helping all the new members as they learn to stand on their own. All of this is in preparation to hopefully take the role of EIC as a senior, which has been my ultimate goal since I decided to apply.

I hope when I’m in college, that I’ll be able to use my experience with The Chariot to improve and develop the school’s newspaper to the best of my abilities. Not only working for the newspaper, but in all my life I’ve strived to be the best I can be and work hard to achieve my goals and dreams. I’ve really been putting my all into my work at school and I really hope my diligence and experiences further my opportunities in the future. I’m quite scared for hereafter, but I think I’m already pretty close to my goal, hopefully.