Antonette Summerville

935 Madrone Road

Glen Ellen, CA 95442
(925) 231 - 5678

To whom it may concern:

My name is Antonette Summerville. As of 2019, I am graduating from Sonoma Valley High

School. I am an opinion writer of the ​Dragon’s Tale​, which won third place in overall excellence
in the ​Press Democrat​’s high school journalism competition. I have written articles regarding
gun control, religious violence, politics, school events, and the LGBTQ+ community.

I was selected to analyze the demographics of the types of students that were interviewed in the
Dragon’s Tale​ each month. I categorized the students by race, gender, and grade and distributed
the data by each department. The sports, op-ed, news, feature, and photo departments had data
that frequently skews towards seniors and Whites. The male-to-female ratio was fairly even
throughout each department. The reason the data is skewed is because our Newspaper class
mainly interviews their friends, which causes mass underrepresentation of a school with over
fifty percent Hispanics and underclassmen. I hope that the future writers of the class continue to
monitor the quotes they use and who they come from, so they can better understand their writing
habits.

Being a developing teenager in an era of increasing social media and presidential attacks on
journalism, I believe that newer generations are struggling to differentiate right from wrong and
truth from lies, morally and logically. As an opinion writer, I believe in writing to publish an
alternative view on a subject and to be a positive influence on developing minds.

Next year, I plan to enroll to California State University East Bay with a major in Computer
Science. I am still undecided in a minor, but I am choosing between Spanish, journalism, and
accounting. I would like to learn Spanish because, living in California, there are many native
speakers and having the ability to communicate with them can broaden my connections with
others. Accounting would help me practice essential financial skills that I can use in college,
after college, and in any jobs that require financial sensibility. Finally, I enjoyed my first year as
an op-ed writer. I publish my opinions because I want the quieter voices in a population to be
heard by more prominent people who may have a limited view on a subject.

Sincerely,

Antonette Summerville