By Matt
Pascarella
Since
elementary school, Anna Crowley Redding has always had an interest in writing
and literature. She was naturally curious and liked asking lots of questions;
this later served her very well when she became an investigative TV reporter.
However,
she had always dreamed of becoming a writer for young readers. After her
children were born, she used her knowledge as an investigative reporter to
uncover stories for kids.
She brought her knowledge to Windham Middle School on
Friday, September 27th. Students had the opportunity to hear about
her experiences, her writing process and participate in problem-solving
activities as well as a mock press conference.
Crowley started out writing articles
for her college newspaper, the Northeastern News. “Learning journalism in
Boston was a fantastic experience,” stated Crowley Redding. “I felt that every
day I was learning from the best in the business. I worked off-air as a field
producer, intern, and associate producer for NECN.” Crowley Redding became a TV
reporter in Utica, New York; then Syracuse; then Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Every station taught me so much about writing, investigative reporting, and
on-camera presentation,” she added.
Her
reporting did not go unnoticed. She has won Edward R Murrow awards which honor
outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism. Crowley Redding
has been recognized by the Associated Press and has an Emmy for an
investigative piece she did about an ice storm.
“Investigative
reporting allows you to make a meaningful difference in your community and in
people’s lives. It’s hard work and often stressful. When you can produce
results that matter to the people most affected...it’s a very fulfilling
experience.”
Crowley Redding decided to switch
career gears after becoming a mom. She was always reading books to her boys
about following their dreams and writing for young readers had been a dream of
hers since she was old enough to remember. Eventually she went for it. Her
debut book, ‘Google It’ tells the story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two
Stanford College students who created what today is the most used search engine.
‘Elon Musk: A Journey to Save the World’ is a biography of the struggles Musk
has gone through and his big dreams for the future. ‘Rescuing the Declaration
of Independence’ (out in 2020) is Crowley Redding’s first picture book. It
tells the true story of a man who risked it all to save our founding documents.
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| Autumn Wood, Tiffanie Scott and Mia White work together on the domino challenge |
During Crowley Redding’s
presentation she spoke about the power of problem solving and the role failure
plays in accomplishing your goals. Although it may look like it, success isn’t
something that just happens – people have to work at it. “Don’t give up, you
are enough” she stressed.
To
help illustrate problem solving and failure, students had to work together in
groups to stack dominoes around a large table. The goal was to be able to set
them off and have the oval go successfully around the table. The students were
given three tries to do this and it is a much tougher challenge than it sounds.
Another
class held a mock press conference about a pretend fire that had happened in
Windham. Each group had to take and sort the information given and then write a
news report for the station they worked for. Each station had a different spin
to their stories, e.g. appeal to a young audience, sensationalistic journalism,
or Big J journalism, which focuses more on the quality of the story.
“I hope that in talking to students
today, they’ll feel inspired to follow their own dreams, to believe that they
are enough, and that when problems and obstacles appear (and they will), that
they are capable of finding a way to overcome setbacks.”
Seventh
grader Fletcher Vopal observed, “It was interesting...it was cool how she
started out small and it’s inspirational for people who want to start doing big
stuff. I learned if something fails you have to keep getting back up...keep
trying and trying until you succeed.”
Seventh
Grader Mia White remarked, “I learned a lot because I am starting on a graphic
novel and it was a lot of good feedback about what I need to be thinking of if
I do want to publish it. I was really inspired by the fact that Crowley Redding
had struggles and she got up and blew everyone away. Anyone can really do
anything if they set their mind to it.”
