When freshman Melissa Krainer joined the Mountain Echo staff, she never expected all of the accomplishments she would make in just the first marking period. 

Krainer’s love of writing has been present ever since she was in grade school.  

“Originally I wrote creative stories when I was in elementary school. Now I just have a lot of fun making up characters,” Krainer said. 

She began her passion for news writing in junior high when she wrote for the Livewire newspaper..

“I found out that there was an elective for news writing at the junior high, and I wanted to try that out. It turned out to be fun,” Krainer said.

One of Krainer’s first articles she wrote for the Mountain Echo about the Autism Awareness Walk bringing strangers together; it won a Best of SNO award.

”I was really, really happy when I found out, not just for me, but for all the people that I met at that walk because I really wanted to share their story and get their names out there in the community,” Krainer said. 

Being one of the few freshmen on the Mountain Echo staff, Krainer is aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of starting news writing so young. 

“You don’t really know a bunch of the people that are there because they’re all older than you, so it’s kind of awkward.  It also has an advantage because we’ll be able to write for four years, one more year than everybody else.  We’ll have more experience with all four [years],” Krainer said.

She is grateful for the skills she has learned in journalism, and how they might assist her in the future.

“I think it’s important to be a journalist because it gives you opportunities and helps develop skills that you will probably need for the future like talking to other people, interviewing people, being able to come up with questions and especially writing the story,” Krainer said. 

Krainer hopes for success for her news writing in the future and wonders if it could possibly turn into a career, or if it will just be something she enjoyed in high school.  She will always be thankful for the important life skills journalism has helped her to develop.