Fairlawn-Bath Patch Reporter Published in Japan

Fairlawn-Bath Patch readers have been getting to know interesting area residents this summer through our column, written by .

Contrera is a freshman Ernie Pyle Scholar at Indiana University, and a reporter and page designer for the Indiana Daily Student. This summer she's also the youngest writer/photographer/videographer on our staff.

You'd never guess she's just a beginner from the level of her talent and work ethic. So we want to take this chance to toot her horn.

Contrera's story on a group of teachers and counsellors who hosted student victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami appeared in yesterday's Japan Times.

How Contrera got the story is a testament to ingenuity. She was on her way to Japan with a group of journalism students last March when the trip was canceled because of the record-setting earthquake and tsunami. But the disaster didn't end the reporter's field trip. While in Hawaii, she managed to wrangle the interview she submitted as a class project. It was subsequently printed in the international English-language newspaper, that has been publishing in Japan since 1897.

You can read the story at this link or in the attached pdf.

Links to Contrera's Patch articles are posted on this page.