When sophomore Charlie Kephart joined the newspaper staff, she was asked questions she was not prepared to answer. She was asked about various aspects of her life such as her time as a journalist and her plans for her future career.

Despite being on the Mountain Echo for the entirety of her time at high school, Kephart had previous experience with journalism beforehand.

“I wrote for the junior high newspaper, and I really liked it. And journalism is one of the careers I might want to get to when I’m older. So if you’re doing high school, make it an experience,” Kephart said.

Aside from doing journalism just for fun, Kephart has other reasons for becoming a journalist.

“I love writing. So I like being able to write about different things. And being able to choose what I write. I like the freedom of it. And a lot of my friends are in journalism,” Kephart said.

Although it may seem like Kephart became a journalist in freshman year, she is more experienced than what would be assumed. 

“I got recommended by my teachers in seventh grade because they thought ‘She’s good at writing,’ And they thought ‘Let’s put her on the staff,’ So I tried it, and I was apparently good at it, so I stuck with it,” Kephart said.

Despite being an aspiring journalist, Kephart is unsure of her future.

“I might want to go into journalism. I’m kind of going back and forth between two things right now, like being in the medical field or journalism, so it’s kind of hard to decide,” Kephart said.

Kephart has written many articles, but she had a clear favorite in mind.

“I wrote this a few weeks ago,  it was about behind the scenes of Homecoming, how everything’s set up, and I won story of the week for that, so I was pretty proud of that story,” Kephart said.

On top of having to manage being part of the newspaper staff, Kephart also has other responsibilities like work to manage as well.

“It’s not very cool, but I do concessions for football games,” Kephart said.

Kephart is preparing for her future.

“I would love to go to college. I want to go to Pitt probably and then either do journalism or pre-med,” Kephart said.

Kephart wants to be a neonatal surgeon.

“I just think babies are really cute and I would love to help them,” Kephart said. “I want to be able to help people because they are babies and their lives have just started and I don’t want them to end yet. So I just want them to be healthy.” 

Aside from the various other aspects of journalism, Kephart likes the freedom that comes along with journalism.

“I just enjoy having creative freedom and being able to choose what I write about. And I like interviewing people and talking to them and getting different perspectives in my stories,” Kephart said.

Kephart had a lot of advice to give.

“I would say, make sure you do everything on time. Get it all done early. If you wait until the last minute, it’s not going to be very fun,” Kephart said. 

After Kephart finished answering her unexpected questions, she went back to work writing stories for all to enjoy including the Jack Kuhns’ article, which gained her the Best of SNO award.