Matthew Tully and the Manual Project

Last Tuesday I attended my Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honors Society and heard Matthew Tully from the Indianapolis Star speak about his journalism project in Manual High School in Indianapolis . Tully spoke about a school that had little to nothing. The school seemed to be failing in many parts and only 39% of the students were graduating from high school. Amongst many other challenges, Manual High School left much room for improvement for both students and teachers.

However, Tully may have been just what Manual High School needed. When Tully started this project, writing weekly about his experience in this public school, it started as "unfortunate news." It was mere "reporting" and no intervening. (Which one would not expect from a reporter.) But Tully did manage to intervene. By writing about his experience and starting a blog and web page about this impoverished school, the community got involved. A Blog was posted about a school choral concert that was open to the public. Tully invited anyone from the community to attend the concert because it was free, but donations were welcomed. Because of this small feed about a small school's request for an audience, Manual High School saw more than 2,000 people in their auditorium, raised thousands of dollars, and brought much needed attention to a struggling school.

One reporter managed to spread the word about a high school's choir concert to the point where it's popularity raised money for the school. Everyone who attended wanted to help this school because of what they read in Tully's articles.



Tully is an example to me how the media really does affect the community. If he hadn't reached out and bridged the wide disconnect between school and community, the school would still be still be scraping for funds and unable to support students with many talents. Tully helped the community to uncover recognize these talents and to support our future generations. Not only did Tully give Manual High School hope, he renewed hope in me for the world of media. Journalists really do have the power to change our world through their words.