Award-winning investigative journalist conducts seminar and roundtable at Historic Fairfax High.
Educada partnered with historic Fairfax High School in Los Angeles to provide students with an exclusive look into the fascinating world of investigative journalism. Fairfax was established in 1924 and is celebrating its centennial anniversary. Named 2022 Journalist of the Year by the Media Council of Kenya, Naipanoi Lepapa is a freelance investigative journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has been providing seminar classes and keynote addresses to K-12 schools and universities across the United States this year. Lepapa spoke to English teacher Alex Seedman’s career readiness classes, as well with a cohort of journalism students in a roundtable discussion over lunch. She was joined by a member of the Educada advisory team, Angela Madison, who boasted an extensive background in both print and broadcast journalism prior to entering California State service as the Chief of Staff for CalTrans Legislative Affairs.
Lepapa shared her work on the Baby Broker Project, in which she went undercover to investigate the world’s leading low-cost surrogacy agency. She shared how her investigative work helped bring to light, the practice of recruiting vulnerable women to carry out surrogacy, as well as the non-transparent operations of these agencies. Students learned skills such as collaboration and interviewing. Lepapa also discussed passion, bravery, and the purpose of creating works in journalism for the public good. Madison shared how journalism and investigative work and research can take many forms, such as investigative reporting, print and broadcast media. She also shared from her personal experience that journalism can also transverse diverse fields, from sports and the arts, to academia to crime coverage. Fairfax journalism students shared that their school newspaper has a long history of being 100% student run. They were able to get personal advice from Lepapa and Madison on how to effectively tell a story and how to overcome hurdles such as funding. Both the seminars and roundtable discussions provided intimate settings for high school students to think about how, through their writing and reporting, they want to impact their communities and the world.
