Author: chloejaneorton

School’s out!…but what about business?

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Chloe Orton
Cambell High School
Smyrna, Georgia

The University of Georgia is located in a small Georgia town named Athens. During the school year this town is a place of packed bars and restaurants, football fans, shopping students and full parking lots. But what happens to the businesses that rely on the busy crowds when the students go home for the summer and football season ends?

Eric Nelson, who works at Walkers Coffee Shop and Pub, said there is a distinct difference in business once the students leave. “It’s terrible. Summertime is not great because the summer session classes are a lot longer and more intensive, so people want to go home after and not out.”

This is in contrast to fall and spring. “If you were coming here during the school year there would be nowhere to sit.”

The lack of foot traffic during the summer in Athens significantly slows down business. Stores and restaurants are impacted in different ways by the lack of customers. Some more unique establishments, such as The Rook and Pawn, have to adjust their hours during the summer. Other businesses, such as High Country Outfitters, have to adjust to new staffing due to the loss of student employees during the summer. 

With the absence of the major crowds, most businesses rely on local events such as AthFest to bring people in. Tim Kelly, one of the owners of The Rook and Pawn said, “Any sort of downtown festival is a huge boom for us.”

For other businesses like High Country Outfitters, they rely on back to school and student summer events to bring people in.

“Once rush picks up, more people will start to buy shoes, and towards the end of summer more people come in and start to look for things like backpacks for the school year and study abroad,” said High Country Outfitters’ manager Skylar Umstead.

However, some businesses take this off season as an opportunity to renovate and update products. “It’s slower but it’s nice because we get a chance to reset most of the stuff in the store,” Umstead said.

Without students, businesses must adjust to a different audience. “We’ll see more younger kids and families come in during the day looking for something to do which we don’t see a lot of during the school year,” said Kelly. 

There are both ups and downs to the summer season, but these businesses are what make Athens such a fun place to live in and visit. There may be some changes in scheduling, customer audiences or new renovations, but the businesses are loved the same by the UGA students when they come back from summer break.  

“Overall it’s still our place and still very much the same aesthetic and vibe,” said Kelly.


Journalism is “dying” when it is needed most

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The world is falling apart and no one knows it.

Journalism is being ignored when it is needed most. To have freedom of the press is to have the freedom of information. Now more than ever, the public needs journalism. A new president means new policies and laws and it can be hard to stay informed. It’s a scary thing to not know what is going on in the world, let alone your own country. Protests, riots, wars, injustices and conflicts. These things are always happening. Every day, all the time, around the world. But not everyone knows. 

For example, many people are unaware of the many conflicts and wars going on in Africa. According to the Geneva Academy, there are more than 35 ongoing armed conflicts in Africa. There are also many who are or were unaware of the fact that the conflicts between Israel and Palestine began long before Oct. 7, 2023. 

One of the main purposes of journalism is to tell the truth and keep people informed. Staying informed is about knowing and understanding both sides of a story. Understanding both sides is extremely important, especially if you decide that you prefer one side because it is important to know what you stand for and what that means to yourself and others. If you don’t know and understand the details of what you are fighting for, how will you be able to properly plan for the outcome.

A good example of this is President Trump’s tariffs. While the purpose of this was to boost the American economy, it ended up raising some prices even more for businesses such as Mattel. According to AP News, “Company executives told analysts on a conference call that China currently accounts for 40% of Mattel’s global production”, and due to the fact that Trump’s imposed 145% tariffs on most of China’s products, Mattel has to raise their sale prices. 

Recently however, media outlets have come to realize that because of the great amount of time people spend on social media, it would be easier to share news with the public via social networks. BBC claims that roughly 54% of people get their news from social media platforms. Because of this, more people are becoming informed, however it could potentially mean the end of hand held paper news. 

With corruption and the need to consistently fact check our own president, journalism is essential to the people. Journalism allows people to be knowledgeable about the things that affect them, and if people don’t know what is going on, no one can move to make a difference. 

If journalism dies now, so will our rights. Stay informed, stay educated, understand both sides, so that we may all make a difference for the better. 

Karmen Morrison’s Journey from Sports to Journalism

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Throughout high school, Karmen Morrison was heavily involved in sports, especially basketball. It was this involvement that led her to where she is today. Helping out at a multimedia journalism camp at the University of Georgia.

” I ended up being female athlete of the year at my city so I did a few interviews for that and I had fun” says Morison. “I was like, I think I can do this”

It turns out that the exposure to being interviewed in multiple enviornments, including radio stations, is what gave Morrison the idea to study multimedia journalism at Florida State University and later at the University of Georgia. Also, as a woman in sports she made a point to advocate for equality for women in sports through interviewing and social media.

This newfound passion allowed Morrison to have an idea of what she wanted to do after high school and get her mom to stop asking so many questions about her future.

Morrison was inspired to continue advocating for women in sports during her time at FSU when she experienced a clear inequality between the men’s and women’s teams.

“We had a pretty good football team when I was there, and they would always get free shirts,” says Morrison. “We were distric champ…athlete of the year and like bro why aren’t we getting free shirts? What’s going on?”

They did eventually get the free t-shirts, however, it is an example of an inequality that women’s sports around the world experience. This was also a motivational source for Morrison to solidify her newfound passion of creating more equality in sports

Morrison’s favorite form of learning information has been through interviewing sources the way she was once interviewed as an athele in high school. One of her favorite interviews was with Lonni Alameda, reknowned softball coach at FSU.

“They had a really late game that I think went to 2 a.m. in the morning.” Morrison said. “She spoke about a lot of things that could change with the Women’s College World Series”

Getting to interview Alameda and talk about unfairness in women’s college softball was an opportunity for Morrison to futher advocate for women’s sports and reach out to a younger audience as well by pointing out equal pay in some sports, such as tennis, and the importance of having representation.

Even though Karmen Morrison may not have seen herself in multimedia journalism, she is glad where she has ended up. Even though she claims she is still a “rookie” in the business she is eager to continue to be able to speak up and advocate for equality and representation in sports through interviews and social media content in order to educate the public.

” I think it’s all about equality.” says Morrison. “Representation matters. Obviosly I’m a black woman so you gotta be able to reach back and show little girls, even little boys… and show them that it’s possible”

Chloe Orton

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I am going into my junior year at Campbell Highschool in Smyrna, Georgia. I am in the International Baccalaureate(IB) program, I love to dance at Atlanta Ballet and most importantly take photos in hopes to persure my goal of becoming a photojournalist. Some of my favorite things to photograph include people, cars, nature and architecture. I mostly take pictures at car shows, while camping and traveling. However, friends and family is also a big part of my life and who I am.

My mom was born and raised in Canada and my dad was born in Tennessee, but mostly grew up in Georgia. I visit family and friends in Canada as often as I can and enjoy spending time with the family I have close to home. Because I have grown up in a small town, I have known most of my friends since I was very little and love that I get to maintain those friendships.

As a little kid I was always a dancer. I danced around the house, at concerts and local music events and just all the time in general. I was put into ballet at a young age, but stoped in kindergarden and began Taekwondo. I continued to do Taekwondo until fifth grade when I got my black belt and decided there were other hobbies I would rather persue. In fourth grade I picked dance back up and began to participate more in school and local theatre productions. Along the way I also picked up basketball, gymnastics and volleyball, but dance just seemed to stick the most. I love the feeling of being on stage in a pretty costume and crazy makeup and realizing what all of those long and hard rehersals were for.

When it came to career paths, I had a hard time making up my mind. When I was little I really wanted to go into marinebiology and study dolphins, until a florida trip made me realize that I would have to spend time with other, more scary animals, in the ocean. After that I thought that because of how good I was on stage I should go into the film industry. It was then I became interested in cameras, film and storytelling. At some point (I don’t know when exactly), but I realized that I wanted to make an impact on the world. Maybe it was watching more of the news during covid, maybe it wasn’t, but I wanted to make an impact. I realized that I could still be able to write, use a camera and make a difference at the same time through journalism. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” didn’t truly click with me until I began to see photos of stuggling ecosystems due to global warming, people in poverty living on the streets that can’t support their children, and innocent people dying in wars for their country not understaning what they stand for. No one should take education for granted, and through journalism more people are becoming educated in what is happening around them.

That being said, while I might not have the most interesting backstory, these things are what make me who I am and motivate me to keep pushing through school and life. In the words of Ferris Buler, “life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”