Light Dohrn
Reporting as Activism
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About Me
About Me
My name is Light Ayli Dohrn, and I am a senior at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Chicago, Illinois. I have been working at the U-High Midway for all four years of my high school career, and I currently serve as editor-in-chief.
I joined the Midway during my freshman year after enrolling in a Beginning Journalism course, and was immediately obsessed. I took on every news brief and light feature that came my way (and was dubbed "crackerjack" and "cub" reporter by my parents) and soon became an assistant editor, where I gained most of my background in editing copy and leading a team.
I became arts & entertainment editor at the end of my sophomore year (I have always been drawn to arts and culture coverage), and stepped into a larger leadership role with terrifying and exhilarating responsibility. Juggling deadlines, supporting writers, editing, page design and writing my own pieces was a true lesson in leadership and multitasking — I bought a planner and buckled down, and learned not only how to manage a section but also how to be someone my team could rely on.
(My parents still call me a cub reporter, though. I'm not convinced they'll drop that nickname, even if I become editor-in-chief of the New York Times.)
The final step of my high school journey was becoming editor-in-chief, the position I hold today. It is the most complicated job I've ever taken on, from sitting down to talk through an article with a cub reporter to meeting with U-High administrators to discuss our reporting. But every step of the way, my goal has been to amplify the voices in my community; whether that's profiling a small business owner in the neighborhood, writing an opinion piece that reflects controversies in our school and in our country, reporting on a lesser-known club at school or helping a younger reporter find their own voice through journalism, as I did.
As a high school senior, I get asked this question more than any other: “What do you want to do with your life?” I have said since freshman year, with a shiny, naïve smile: "I want to be a journalist." And each time, without fail, the response? “You know, it’s a really scary time to be going into that.”
They mean it kindly, and they aren't even necessarily wrong. But what it misses is that journalism is not dying. Not at my school, at least. At U-High, journalism is alive in late-night layout sessions, in reporters nervously rehearsing interview questions in the hallway and in the thrill of seeing your byline in print for the first time. It’s alive when students argue over wording (because accuracy matters), or when an editor sends a piece back for one more round of revisions (because every story deserves that kind of attention). The Midway is a working newsroom, run by teenagers who care deeply about telling the truth and telling it well. It may be student journalism, but we report on everything from race and poverty to the battles over free speech to gender and sexuality. I wrote in a recent column for the Midway: “When someone tells me it's a scary time to be a journalist, I tell them there's never been a better time to be one than right now. When the truth is constantly under attack, reporting it stops being a job and becomes resistance.”
Because really, who better to resist than a newsroom full of scrappy young people?
Elspeth — an EIC for our photojournalism team — and me after being named to the 2025 Illinois all-state journalism team!
Members from all U-High journalism teams (including me, somewhere in the middle) at the 2024 NSPA Boston Journalism conference!
Members from all U-High journalism teams (including me, again, lost in the shuffle somewhere) at the 2025 NSPA Nashville Journalism conference!
Me (middle) and four of my teammates after being promoted to assistant editors and one Audience Engagement Editor!
While this is somewhat unrelated to journalism, I've attached a link to a literary translation website (specifically a collection of Catullus's works) that I created this year. I think literary translation and journalism share certain ancestors (language, ultimately), and I wanted to include the site as a testament to another of my humanities-oriented passions.
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