Brookfield East senior named Wisconsin Journalist of the Year by education association

When Eiman Mir asked her Brookfield East student newspaper advisor Tyler Saxton if she could host a writer's workshop for students at nearby Pilgrim Park Middle School, Saxton thought it was a great idea.

Mir, then a junior, didn't just go on to create a workshop to teach middle schoolers about the fundamentals of journalism. She also published six eighth-graders' stories on the online Spartan Banner, the Brookfield East student newspaper for which she serves as online editor-in-chief.

That put incoming freshmen's stories in their new school's paper in their first weeks of high school, Saxton said.

"She made a bunch of people feel right at home as freshmen," Saxton said. And, he said, Mir's efforts just about doubled the Spartan Banner's staff numbers to around 50 students.

That's just how Mir operates as the online editor-in-chief of the Spartan Banner, Saxton said ― with a student-centered approach. That helped the Brookfield East senior get recognized in February as the Wisconsin Journalist of the Year by the Wisconsin Journalist Education Association, an organization that supports school newspapers and student journalists in schools throughout Wisconsin.

Mir submitted an application with her portfolio to the organization in January and found out she won first place out of other Wisconsin high school senior applicants via email while she was in her English class.

"Being able to report to the community and share our own perspective is very valuable," Mir, who lives in Brookfield, told the Journal Sentinel.

As the winner, Mir received a $1,000 scholarship from the Milwaukee Press Club Endowment and she's now in the running for the National High School Journalist of the Year Competition along with other first-place winners across the United States.

Mir 'owns the online world,' according to advisor

Mir's first exposure to journalism was through her middle school's "news network." She and other students would create broadcasts and interview people about trends, sports and other things going on in school.

"I was involved with that, and I really liked the environment that we had," Mir said. She decided to join the Spartan Banner thanks to that experience ― and the fact that her friends were also joining the high school newspaper.

Now a senior, Mir is the online editor-in-chief of the Spartan Banner and "she owns the online world" while still giving input on the print edition of the paper and working with the whole team, according to her advisor Saxton. She writes her own articles and edits online feature stories, news stories and opinion pieces.

For the online articles, Mir creates images and designs in Canva or Adobe Illustrator to make the stories more engaging. She takes those designs and posts them on the Spartan Banner's social media accounts to try to reach a greater audience.

"Even if they just read a little blurb of the Instagram post that's better than if they didn't see it at all," Mir said.

In Mir's own reporting, she gravitates towards topics people in and out of school can relate to, engage with or learn from.

One of her favorite stories is one she spoke with students for during Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Month last May.

In Elmbrook district classrooms, where AANHPI students make up 10% of the student population, "AANHPI students are often excluded from conversations about equitable education because it is assumed they are better off in the first place," wrote Mir, who herself is Pakistani. "What’s more is that under all of this pressure, AANHPI students are less likely to seek mental health services than any other racial group when they need it."

Mir wrote on about the need to include Asian Americans in a law requiring instructional learning on American Indian, Black American and Hispanic history ― which Gov. Tony Evers passed as the Hmong American and Asian American education bi-partisan bill in March.

Mir has also written stories that bridge the gap between students and staff. Her article "Spotify Wrapped: Teacher Edition" revealed the roundup of 16 Brookfield East teachers' most-played songs and artists of 2023.

Mir's byline has made it outside of Brookfield as well. She wrote a story in memory of Pakistani activist and musician Nazia Hassan for the LA Times' High School Insider.

Mir makes journalism more accessible for fellow high school students

Mir most enjoys when upperclassmen share resources and reflections through their articles as insight for younger students.

"They try to use Spartan Banner to give advice to underclassmen, which I really think is valuable that we create this platform to help people," she said.

Mir makes sure to do the same with her Spartan Banner staff. She's compiled lists of college newspapers to look to as examples for reporting, encouraged reporters to interview more people for their articles and created guides on how to come up with story ideas.

"Sometimes it can be a little confusing for people to figure out what to write, so (I like) making it more available for everyone," Mir said.

Outside of journalism, Mir is involved in a club for future health professionals and National Honors Society. She also plays tennis, is an artist and, most recently, put her design skills to use through a group that helps students review for AP Pre-Calculus exams.

For future Journalist of the Year applicants and young journalists, Mir has advice.

"You shouldn't doubt yourself too much," Mir said. "Journalism is not just writing, it's also social media and design ... Journalism is not just what it seems to be, it's not just one path," she said.

Saxton credits Mir's creativity and ambition for increasing both the Spartan Banner readership and news staff numbers and says she does it all with contentious purpose.

"She doesn't go above and beyond to make it look good on a resume," Saxton said. "But she genuinely cares about people and about journalism and about doing it the right way to be a professional. She just knows she knows exactly what she is."

Contact the reporter bfogarty@gannett.com

Editor's note: This story was updated 4/10/2024 to correct the number of eighth-grade students' stories Mir published online and to clarify there was no contest.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brookfield East senior named Wisconsin Journalist of the Year