The story of my life

*On my daily runs and walks, I often see feathers… which remind me of the traditional quills associated with journalism.*

By Karen Hendricks

“Thank you for entrusting your words to me.”

That’s what I often say, after I’ve interviewed someone–especially if we’ve touched on a sensitive, tragic or moving topic. The fact that they opened up to me is never something I take for granted. I take it as a sign of trust. Their words, after all, are their life stories.

What they would each call “the story of my life.”

It’s especially meaningful to me, given our current climate. Public trust in journalism is at near-record lows, according to several recent studies. One small consolation: Public trust in local journalism is higher than national journalism.

What many people might not realize is that many of us belong to professional journalism organizations, in addition to having earned college degrees in journalism that prepared us to interview, write and report the news with integrity.

For example, I’m a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, which has a detailed Code of Ethics. It touches on four areas:

Seek Truth and Report It: Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Minimize Harm: Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.
Act Independently: The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.
Be Accountable and Transparent: Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

This code serves as the backbone of each and every story that I write.

In November, my published stories highlight a wide variety of personal life stories, from women doing exceptional work in their fields, compassionate people who serve as foster parents, and a woman who’s on a personal mission to welcome Black travelers to Gettysburg.

What an honor and a responsibility that they shared their stories with me, so that I can share them with the public.

In Susquehanna Style, read about five women our readers nominated as the 2023 “Women of Strength,” Nov. 2023–a highly-anticipated and highly-read annual cover story.

*Bonus: I gathered to hear each of the women speak and be celebrated at Susquehanna Style’s Annual Celebrate Women event in early November.*

Meet Patricia Green Rodgers, who has launched a one-woman campaign to welcome Black travelers to Gettysburg, in “Building Bridges,” in the Nov/Dec issue of Celebrate Gettysburg magazine.

November is National Adoption Month. I was honored to capture the stories of foster and adoptive parents making a difference in the lives of children across the Mid-Atlantic region, for four sister publications: Washington Family, MetroKids Philly, Baltimore’s Child and Frederick’s Child. The main story was republished in each magazine, but I also wrote a city-specific profile as a different sidebar for each magazine.

*Two of the stories are even featured as cover stories*!

Also in Washington Family magazine: “Go Bo,” a feature story about a family who turned their experience with pediatric cancer into a fundraising party machine.

And a follow-up to last month’s newsletter: As a result of my story for StateImpact Pennsylvania, about churches that have switched to solar power, I was thrilled to be interviewed on the podcast The Allegheny Front.

And speaking of voices… as well as journalistic integrity… I invite you to tune into WITF, “Central Pennsylvania’s public media organization – your home for NPR and discovering all things local.”

I am on cloud nine to be on their airwaves and working with a newsroom I consider to be the cream of the crop of Central PA journalism. Through November, I trained and completed solo airshifts on All Things Considered (4-6 pm) and Morning Edition (5-9 am). Through the holiday season, I’ll be filling in for about three weeks straight, so keep your ears open. 🙂

Tune into: WITF FM Harrisburg 89.5, Lancaster 99.9, WYPM Chambersburg 93.3, or online from any location, at witf.org.

Joining WITF as a freelancer is not only a 2023 highlight, but an all-time career highlight. And that is adding a wonderful new component to the story of my life.

Thank you for reading, thank you for supporting journalism via subscribing to this eNewsletter, and I wish you a warm and wonderful holiday season.