Charnae Sanders graduated from Communication & Media Arts High School in 2012, but her reputation as a stellar student and the memory of her bright smile remains in the minds of many teachers, staff and students.
Sanders, now a student at Central Michigan, participated in the High School Journalism Program at CMA and was a summer apprentice for the Detroit Free Press in 2012.
“(The HSJP) gave me a platform on journalism, it definitely set it off, and it introduced me to different journalism skills, and taught me things I couldn’t learn in the classroom,” Sanders said.
As a freshman at CMU, she jumped right into journalism, working her way up to senior reporter for the school newspaper and then managing editor of the school magazine.
“I also worked in broadcasting for sports intro; this is the field I want to head in,” said Sanders, who attends CMU on the Lem Tucker Journalism Scholarship. Tucker was NBC’s first African-American TV network reporters in the 1960s and the first black student body president at CMU.
Sanders also is someone willing to help current HSJP program participants—offering advice and speaking to Detroit Free Press summer apprentices in 2013 and 2014. Mentoring students is how she plans to continue to give back to her community and the field of journalism.
“I’d love to talk to aspiring journalists,” Sanders said. “I want to work with students and tell them that they can follow their dreams and never forget where I came from.”
By Dajae Everette, CMA Staff Writer
