Shiren Noorani is the Managing Editor for The Hawk Eye at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas. Noorani works with the other officers and specialists to develop New Voices clubs around the state of Texas.

“I’ve always valued honesty and truth in my life and that’s exactly what journalism has meant to me. It’s why I got involved in it and what led me to fall in love with writing. It’s been an outlet for me, not just of the various stories of diversity that I’ve found in my school, but also for the depth of my personal experiences and perspectives. The constant form of censorship in our state has played a vital role in what I’ve not only been able to cover and not, but also what I’ve felt comfortable covering. As young journalists, we must value the opportunity we have to uncover the depth and truth of situations going on in our lives but in order to do so we must fight to exercise our rights. I don’t want anyone, including myself, to ever feel the need to alter their way of writing or speaking things so it can get published; that’s where we lose the raw and rare power of true journalism.”

What I Do

As the Club Development officer of New Voices Texas, I work to develop a New Voices Club within my school as well as other high schools. My goal is to raise awareness for legislation on students’ right to free press. I hope to manage a functional club to keep both journalist and non-journalist students interested and welcomed.


My responsibilities for the development of New Voices Texas Clubs across high schools consist of getting my publication involved and reaching out to other high school publications, all while making sure that students know this is not limited to only journalists. I want to make it a space for all students to discuss issues regarding our right to free speech and press in schools. It’s my duty to inform those who may not be aware that we have rights regarding our free speech that should be protected by law. Especially with all that’s going on in our world, I want to make sure that by doing this, it will give students, like me, who have been restricted by their schools from publishing on certain topics, incidents or perspectives, a way to be protected while also sticking to what it means to be a journalist — covering the truth.


I will measure success as an officer by not only the amount of clubs I am able to develop within the school year but also by how many strong advocates we gain, both journalists and non-journalists. If I am able to achieve this success, New Voices will have numerous new advocates in clubs that will fight for our right to be heard.


By the end of the school year, I hope to have a functional club within my own school as well as schools around the state that I helped start up. It’s important that, as journalists, we exercise our right of freedom of the press, so we can continue to cover the whole, entire truth.