Student journalists from Madison and Pinkston High Schools share their communities’ stories

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Christian Williams listens to Ferrell Fellows of Kingdom Legacy talk about the MLK Wellness Center, which should open by Christmas 2024. Photo by Keri Mitchell

Our high school students can and should be community storytellers.

That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome Ta’Dondrian Crayton, a recent graduate of the “Great” James Madison High School in South Dallas, and Christian “Batman” Williams, a rising junior at Dr. L.G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas, as summer interns.

Both of these young men spent the past year in our journalism pathway program at their high schools (we also worked at the Legendary Lincoln High School). They applied and were accepted to the University of North Texas Mayborn’s Scripps Howard Emerging Journalists fellowship. They spent a week on UNT’s Denton campus immersed in training followed by eight weeks with us, being paid to report and tell their community’s stories.

Their first week on the job, they spent a full day touring Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Dallas for a partner project between Dallas Free Press, Dallas Doing Good, Southern Methodist University and Texas Metro News. They were the youngest in the group, but I was impressed at their thoughtful questions and the way they took the initiative to interview the business owners and organization leaders.

Ta’Dondrian Crayton interviews Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce president Harrison Blair at the chamber’s new offices in Vista Bank. Photo by Keri Mitchell

Christian helms the podcast club that produces the podcast “Pinkston Said That.” In its tagline, they instruct their peers and any listening adults to “grab your headphones and tune in as we engage in insightful conversations about our school experiences and work together to address the challenges we face as teenagers.”

The most recent episode is an overview of the podcast with club sponsor and Ms. Deidra Moore, the school’s librarian and our pathway partner at Pinkston, that notes the podcast focuses on “our voices and our opinions on the topics we care about.” 

Ta’Dondrian is headed to the University of Texas-Arlington in the fall and plans to study engineering. Journalism was not on his radar until he enrolled in a class with Mr. Carvell Dangerfield, our pathway partner at Madison. He seemed uninterested and disengaged at first, but as the year progressed, our pathway coordinator Marlissa Collier says  Ta’Dondrian began asking insightful questions and volunteering to take story assignments.

“I know I need to use my voice,” Ta’Dondrian told us after the UNT Mayborn training. He’s still not sure whether journalism is part of his future career, but “I want to take what I learn and implement it into something I enjoy, and people around me enjoy.”

That’s music to our ears. We know that not every student we work with will pursue a journalism career. In fact, most of them won’t. Our hope is that several students who walk the hallways of Lincoln, Madison and Pinkston high schools will become our city’s future reporters and newsroom leaders, telling stories from the rich perspective of growing up in West Dallas and South Dallas.

And for those who don’t, we believe that what they learn — how to communicate, think critically, ask good questions, engage civically and interpret the media flooding their lives — will benefit them in whatever career they choose.

Do you have a story idea for Christian or Ta’Dondrian? Send it to info@dallasfreepress.com.

Christian Williams, second from right, and Ta’Dondrian Crayton, far right, outside the “Great” James Madison High School with SMU students and professors. Photo by Keri Mitchell