Renaissance Staff Writer
“When I was in the fifth grade, my teacher at Bates Academy told me I was good at writing,” said Marlon Walker, a Metro reporter for the Detroit Free Press. “That’s when I knew I wanted to be journalist.”
Walker, who attended Renaissance High School, also won the High School Journalism Program’s annual $24,000 Ford Scholarship. He attended Florida A&M University.
The Detroit Free Press has also been doing an apprenticeship program since the early 1990s, where ten high school students are picked to work there for six weeks under a reporter.
“I participated in the apprenticeship in 1999,” Walker said. “Being in the newsroom with professionals I read in the paper was more exciting than meeting a celebrity. I knew these folks by their byline and it meant everything to me.
“Working for the Detroit Free Press for the apprenticeship gave me knowledge and showed me that the dream of being a journalist was attainable.”
Walker found his way back home in 2013, and began working as a reporter in the Metro section for the Free Press.
“Being a reporter for the Detroit Free Press now is weird because you still feel like an 18 year old because the same people are still there,” he said. “You still have to prove yourself.”
