Meet Our Reporters
Zenobia Dowdy
Zenobia Dowdy is a recent graduate of North Carolina Central University. She plans to tell stories from behind and in front of the microphone. Currently, she does freelance work in audio and video production. During her undergraduate studies, she interned on campus and at various locations throughout Durham, North Carolina. She is a native of Sanford, North Carolina, and is a fan of anything yellow.
Ways to connect with Zenobia:
Zenobia Dowdy on LinkedIn
queenobi___ on Instagram
Bringing something back to my community
Coming out of this project, I have this warm fuzzy feeling inside because I was able to bring something back to my community. Just like Crystal McIver, I also am from Sanford, North Carolina. Just up the street from the garden I attended pre-school, so that feeling of...
Sierra Pfeifer
Sierra Pfeifer is a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying journalism and Spanish. She hopes to use journalism and storytelling to foster growth at the individual and community level, connecting people who are different from one another. This summer she worked as a reporter at 97.9 The Hill. During the school year, she works as the audio-visual editor at The Daily Tar Heel. Sierra is from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and recently spent a semester in Quito, Ecuador.
Ways to connect with Sierra:
Sierra Pfeifer on LinkedIn
@sierrapfeifer on Twitter
@sierra_pf on Instagram
Stretching and growing: Why I love journalism
After a speedrun of a week, I am coming away with a lesson in confidence. While putting together the different moving pieces of this digital piece, I learned a lot about the difference confidence can make during the journalism process. When I was confident in myself...
Sarah Rogers
Sarah Rogers’ love of stories is vast. She studied medieval literature and can still recite poetry in Middle English to anyone who’ll listen. Now, she’s interested in using audio and visual media to tell more current stories. Originally from Rich Square, a small town in northeastern North Carolina, Sarah has called Durham home for nearly 20 years.
Ways to connect with Sarah:
Sarah Rogers on LinkedIn
Taking opportunity by the tail
In a previous life, when I studied medieval literature, I read a lot of poetry with allegorical figures – personifications of concepts like Reason, or Conscience, or Childishness. One sticks in my mind: “Opportunity.” Opportunity had a long tail of hair that only grew...
Lorelai Sykes
Lorelai Sykes is a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in journalism and global studies with a minor in Arabic language studies. Through mixed media, she aims to elevate voices from marginalized communities. She is the editor and co-executive of the ChapelPhil podcast, a student-run philosophy and ethics podcast. She has worked as a reporter and anchor for UNC’s student radio show Carolina Connection. Sykes is from Wilmington, North Carolina, and is usually hanging out with her cat, Beef.
Ways to connect with Lorelai:
Lorelai Sykes on LinkedIn
@chapelphil on Instagram
My week at NPR’s Next Generation Radio
This was an amazing week where I learned so much, not just audio, but journalism as a whole. This was my first time working with a large and talented team to put such a large project together. It was a challenge to juggle so many tasks at once, but I was exposed to...
Beayonie Washington
Beayonie Washington is a journalism student at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, expecting to graduate May 2024. She is excited about working as a journalist and loves sharing stories about her community. Beayonie also writes to empower Black girls to embrace blooming into womanhood, and runs a business, Yoniverseinc, in which she reads tarot cards for her friends, family and clients, and creates products that can assist them on their spiritual journeys.
Ways to connect with Beayonie:
Beayonie Washington on LinkedIn
@beayonie on Instagram
The truth about being a real life journalist
It's been a hell of a week for me but honestly it has unlocked a new level of work capacity. I had fun creating the story and this was a chance for me to decide whether I am going into the right career field, because the way the project is set up it’s intense and...