By Lauren White
Q&S Communications Director

Columbus Day

How does your school and/or community mark this controversial holiday?

While the federal holiday has been in effect for as long as we remember, in 1992, 500 years after Christopher Columbus’ first voyage, the first official organization of “Indigenous People’s Day” took place. This is now the holiday that many Americans choose to recognize rather than Columbus Day.

What does your city or state celebrate?

Here’s what you can do: 

With the holiday a week from today there may be different demonstrations or celebrations taking place soon.

• If there are any events in your area, attend those and ask the people coordinating them what they are celebrating for. If in favor of Columbus Day, ask them why and what they think of the recognition of Indigenous People’s Day. For those who are celebrating Indigenous People’s Day, ask why they feel it is important to recognize the native people.
• If there are not any events taking place, this is a good time for an enterprise story about the day. Talk to Indigenous people or groups in your state as well as historians at any local colleges or museums.
  • When writing an enterprise, or long-form, story, it is important to do plenty of background research. Use historical documents as well as current quotes.
  • Use a lot of visuals. These can be photos, charts, graphs, or pull quotes. This helps to catch further interest and break up graphs of text and make he story more visually appealing.
  • Start this story right away as it may take longer than a typical story.

Parents say Yes! (Kinda)

The number of parents willing to vaccinate children increases

A new survey found that more parents want to give their children the Covid-19 vaccine compared to July of this year. This number is still only 34 percent, which rose from 26 percent.

Additionally, 58 percent of parents say that schools should have a mask mandate, 35 percent oppose a mask mandate and 4 percent think that only unvaccinated students and staff should feel compelled to wear a mask.

Here’s what you can do:

• Poll your school to see how much of the student body is vaccinated. The easiest way to do this is with a service like Google Forms, which not only allow you to see each individual anonymously and breaks down the entire survey with a pie chart you can create easily.
  • Check out this tutorial from DataQuest on how to conduct a great survey.
• You should include comments from a few pediatricians in your story. They should tell you what effects may look like for children as well as their own personal recommendations.

Rural Diversity

Gap between white residents and others continues to shrink

Rural communities in the U.S.are not typically known for being racially or ethnically diverse. While non-Hispanic White people still make up the largest portion of rural America, the gap decreased by almost 5 percent by 2020.

As a country that prides itself on its tradition as a “melting pot” or “tossed salad” (you pick the food analogy that makes most sense for you), we should be celebrating an increase of diversity in communities across the U.S.

Here’s what you can do: 

• First,  you should find the demographics of your own city. This can be found using U.S. Census data or call your city manager to find our the more recent data.
• You can also connect with historians and racial studies professors at nearby universities to learn about the background of diversity in your sate as well as why the demographics look the way they do.
• There are plenty of reasons why your town may or may not be racially diverse. You need to remain sensitive to what communities and historians have to say in order to promote an increase in diversity.