Sydney Ortiz is the Editor-In-Chief of the Kingwood Park Times newspaper at Kingwood Park High School in Kingwood, Texas.

“As student journalists it is a need to be able to amplify the voices in our community without being censored. It is crucial that all journalists can share stories using their First Amendment rights. Communities deserve true and fresh stories, and students journalists deserve to share those accurate stories. “

What I Do

As the communication and legislative specialist of New Voices Texas, I work with my fellow student leaders to share the goals of New Voices with Texas legislatures and community members. To do this I will help create a podcast for New Voices Texas where we speak with students journalists, state lawmakers, and school officials amplifying our cause. I will help advocate for student press freedoms through consistent communication with lawmakers and by educating fellow student journalists, encouraging them to join the cause.  I am responsible for working with our officers to help spread the goals of New Voices Texas and bring more support to the cause from local groups and communities to larger state organziations and leaders.

 I will measure success as an officer by how many lawmakers I can help get to understand the importance of a New Voices bill, and by how many students journalists, state lawmakers, and school officials I can get to be on our new podcast, in addition to how consistently we post the podcasts. These little successes will hopefully set us to have consistent communication with lawmakers, and establish strong ground for the New Voices bill to be passed next year.

By the end of the year, I hope to have established a podcast that can be posted at least once a month and edited to be on multiple platforms including social media to help spread the New Voices Texas’s goals with a broader audience. I also hope to have created strong connections with local lawmakers that can continue to grow stronger as the years progress.