Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
A Bucks County resident currently working as a reporter for ESPN recently spoke with Pennsbury sixth grade students about the importance of writing.
Dana O’Neil, who covers college basketball and occasionally horse racing for ESPN.com, spoke with students from teacher Amanda Foster’s classes at Pennwood Middle School in Lower Makefield.
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The reporter’s open discussion with the students came in advance of a lesson that requires Foster’s students to write informative essays on natural disasters.
“Let your own voice come out,” O’Neil told the students. “This is one of the only classes where you can use your voice.”
O’Neil, who previously covered the Eagles and Phillies for the Philadelphia Daily News, took questions from the students. Most of the questions focused on O’Neil’s job.
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The reporter explained to students that she often travels to different colleges across the nation to write about basketball games, talk to athletes and coaches and write features about teams.
“Some of the most interesting people I meet aren’t the most famous,” she said. O’Neil told students of a 7,000 word feature she penned this year on Austin Hatch, a Michigan basketball player who survived two separate plane crashes that killed five members of his family.
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The group of students watched intensely as O’Neil explained the stress of writing on deadlines. She recalled filing 26 stories for the Philadelphia Daily News when the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl in 2004.
The middle schoolers were reminded that “writing isn’t just used in journalism.” O’Neil explained that good written communication skills are needed in all aspects of life.
Between traveling to different colleges, horse races and a small TV studio in Philadelphia to make appearances on ESPN’s TV networks, O’Neil said she finds her job rewarding and always interesting.
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Spurred by a high school English teacher, O’Neil discovered over time her love of telling stories. It’s a lesson she told the kids to follow.
“Always read and learn more about topics that interest you.”
