2025 Impact Award winner sheds light on budget cuts

For her dedication to covering the impacts of a $20 million cut to the school district’s budget, Satvika Ramanathan from Huron (Michigan) High School is the 2025 Student Journalist Impact Award winner.

Ann Arbor Education Association Action Team Chairperson Sarah Anton met Ramanathan as she covered the teachers’ union and Ann Arbor Public School’s attempt to fight budget cuts, increases in healthcare costs and challenges to receiving a living wage. Anton said Ann Arbor is a city built on student journalism, and with the absence of local coverage, Ramanathan’s journalism fills a need that the community has come to rely on.

“Satvika’s journalistic integrity is beyond her years as a student reporter,” Anton said. “Her commitment to fair and balanced reporting is one reason The Huron Emery is considered a credible source of commentary on district affairs in Ann Arbor. Because of this skill and her ability to form relationships, Satvika’s coverage of the $20.4 million budget cuts in spring 2024 and their impact on staff and students was critical to informing community members and parents about the crisis afoot.”

Anton said the care Ramanathan took to share the district and teachers’ stories had a powerful impact on the union’s ability to communicate their needs and demands to the community to save their schools.

“As an Action Team, we look forward to Satvika’s coverage of our events, her interviews with stakeholders and her crafting of the story,” Anton said. “We know, based on her diligence and ability to foster relationships, she will create an accurate picture that will inform our entire community on the needs of our public school system. It is one thing for her to be a good journalist, but it is a testament to her that she has become a trusted pillar of our community.”

Emery adviser Sara-Beth Badalamente, CJE, said teachers from other schools reached out to tell her that The Emery covered the stories the best.

“What Satvika did, that other outlets didn’t do, is she spoke to people,” Badalamente said. “She found who was impacted and told their stories. This is what made her coverage engaging and so that people read her articles.”

Ramanathan’s coverage continues this year as teachers took significant pay cuts due to rising health care costs.

“Satvika’s reputation for balanced journalism has made it so that stakeholders in the district have actually reached out to me to see when The Emery can do an interview to share their news,” Badalamente said. “Our community knows that The Emery will provide the best journalism.

Badalamente said this is due to Ramanathan’s fact checking, patience to post and dedication to seeking the truth.

“Satvika has inspired others,” Badalamente said. “Students want to cover board meetings. They want to cover political stories. They want to be better journalists telling tough stories. Satvika mentors them through this process.”

As one of the co-advisers of the middle school newspaper, Ramanathan now mentors junior high students to write about the political topics that impact them, including board coverage.

Badalamente said, “Her impact goes deep.”

This award is co-sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists and will be presented April 24 at the opening ceremony of the Spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle.