Young Journalists Speak on L.A. Wildfires Impact at USC Initiative

Larry Wilson (left) and Geoffrey Cowan (background) speak with student participants of the U.S.C. Wildfire Youth Media Initiative in the courtyard of the Pasadena Playhouse on El Molino Avenue. (Photo: Gregory Miller)

When the sky turned red from wildfire smoke and the acrid air stung the eyes of Southern Californians, a different kind of fire emerged—one lit by the pens, lenses, and voices of high school and college journalists. At the heart of this movement is the U.S.C. Wildfire Youth Media Initiative, a program that empowers emerging reporters to chronicle the impacts of climate-driven disasters through firsthand storytelling. The initiative not only documents the environmental crisis but positions young journalists as central agents of change.

Recently, the Initiative convened a listening session at the Pasadena Playhouse to document wildfire experiences from local students and community members, using student-led interviews to build a public digital archive of resilience and recovery. That gathering embodied the program’s mission: empowering young reporters to transform lived experience into stories with social impact.

This vision draws inspiration from the work of Geoffrey Cowan, university professor at U.S.C. and former dean of the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Walter Lippmann Fellow of the Academy of Political and Social Science, Cowan’s interdisciplinary approach and enduring advocacy of public service journalism are highly recognized. He has consistently advanced programs that connect student journalists to projects with tangible, real-world impact.

Cowan explained that in finding students for the initiative, a competition was held to select participants from the region who had been directly affected by the wildfires. Each student brought prior writing or journalism experience, enabling the project to blend lived experience with developing professional skill. Cowan often emphasizes that emerging journalists demonstrate a heightened attunement to the realities of the communities they inhabit—where they live, where they are educated, and where their social worlds unfold. Such proximity, he contends, provides an interpretive vantage point that enriches both reportage and public discourse. As he reflected, “We hope that if something really good came out of it, maybe it could serve as a model for what can happen in other communities where there are natural disasters.”

At the operational helm of the Wildfire Youth Media Initiative stands Rebecca M. Haggerty, Associate Professor of Journalism at U.S.C. Annenberg. A seasoned broadcast journalist with more than two decades of experience—including assignments with CNN and Marketplace—Haggerty has traversed an expansive thematic terrain, from health policy to global economics. Her pedagogy is rooted in trauma-informed practices and uncompromising ethical standards, which she insists remain non-negotiable within the journalistic profession.

“The students we mentor aren’t just writing articles,” Haggerty explained. “They are engaging with people in crisis, many of whom have lost everything. How we teach them to listen is just as important as what they report.” Here, the emphasis on empathetic listening reframes journalism as both a civic responsibility and a therapeutic act of witness.

Haggerty’s work extends beyond the classroom, encompassing workshops and training sessions on disaster coverage and community-centered reporting. She has also been an unrelenting advocate for broadening access to journalistic training for underrepresented communities, thereby democratizing both the profession and the narratives it produces. “This isn’t just about wildfire reporting,” she underscored. “It’s about building a national culture of resilience, starting with the storytellers of the next generation.”

In concert with Haggerty’s vision, Talia Abrahamson, program coordinator for the Wildfire Youth Media Initiative, contributes her academic foundation from Columbia University and extensive professional expertise in editorial logistics. With a deep respect for student autonomy, she characterizes her role as one of scaffolding rather than steering: “Facilitating their ideas, not directing them.” This approach, she notes, creates an environment where students may not only exercise creativity but also learn through experimentation. “Students need the space to explore,” she remarked. “But they also need support structures that hold space for their mistakes, their growth, and their voice.”

Abrahamson sees interdisciplinary exchange as powerful, noting the potential of pairing scientists and student reporters: “Imagine climate researchers working alongside youth reporters,” she mused. “That’s the kind of interdisciplinary magic we’re trying to spark.”

Allison Agsten, Director of U.S.C. Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication, brings a curatorial eye and civic commitment to the table. Formerly curator of public engagement at the Hammer Museum and a journalist at CNN, Agsten is fluent in translating complex environmental topics into accessible narratives.

Agsten, who was present at the Pasadena convening in her role as U.S.C.’s eco-chaplain, said, “This work doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader struggle for justice—climate justice, housing justice, and media justice. Young journalists are critical to this fight.”

Agsten sees youth-led media as inherently disruptive—in the best sense. “Their stories challenge dominant paradigms, not because they’re contrarian, but because they’re closer to the ground, to the fire, and to the truth.”

Susan Goelz, Business Budget Analyst for U.S.C. Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, has played a key role in ensuring the financial and organizational infrastructure of the Wildfire Initiative remains resilient. Her capacity to synthesize financial coherence with logistical precision has been indispensable in operationalizing the program’s journalistic mission, illustrating how strategic administration functions as the often-invisible architecture that enables large-scale youth media initiatives to thrive.

“We thought right away, why couldn’t we get high school reporters to report on their community,” said Goelz. “They’re already writing for their school papers. Why not give them the chance to report on something real, like the fires that affected their own neighborhoods?”

Larry Wilson, former public editor and opinion editor at the Pasadena Star-News, now works closely with U.S.C.’s Annenberg program to offer editorial guidance. Wilson frames the initiative as both a journalistic imperative and a democratic necessity, underscoring the extent to which youth media functions not merely as reportage but as participatory citizenship.

During the Eaton Canyon fires, Wilson was forced to evacuate his home. As a member of the Athenaeum at Caltech and a frequent guest at UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center, he was able to secure temporary lodging through those institutional affiliations. Wilson posits that combining empirical data with narrative storytelling is not optional but constitutive of journalism’s future trajectory. “Data and storytelling need each other,” he observed. “That’s where the future lies.”

The initiative also drew young journalists like Noah Haggerty, who recently received his B.S. in Applied Physics from Northeastern University and is a contributor to the U.S.C. initiative, complementing his role as an environment, health, and science reporter at the Los Angeles Times. At the Times, he integrates empirical inquiry with public communication at the intersection of science and society. He joined the paper in 2024 as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow. His work includes interviews with fire victims, responders, and policymakers.

“I’ve always been a very curious person,” he stated, “and I think growing up through high school, and earlier in college, I’ve always naturally, like tried to seek out and identify conversations that I felt were subverting like, the typical flat, like, left-right conversations or traditional ways of thinking about things.”

He continued, “I ended falling into journalism a little bit by chance, just the way that life took me. Starting with the experiences of young people growing up in Southern California, in Pasadena, and in our communities, we need to tell their stories and then build the connection between these large and national issues, such as wildfires and other disasters that are happening.”

Also in attendance was Nathan Wang, a news correspondent with Local News Pasadena, who just graduated high school and will be entering the University of Pennsylvania this fall. Though not formally part of the initiative, Wang underscored the importance of cultivating journalistic capacity around disaster coverage, recognizing the pedagogical significance of Rebecca and Talia’s work.

The U.S.C. Wildfire Youth Media Initiative demonstrates how journalism can give voice to those most affected by disaster. Its model empowers students—many of them still in high school—to turn lived experience into powerful public narratives. In doing so, it offers a template for how young people can document crises, foster resilience, and contribute to a more informed and empathetic society.

The bridge is not merely metaphorical; it is infrastructural. It forges connections between journalism and science, between trauma and healing, between youthful inquiry and institutional authority. It is not only a proposal but a directive.

A directive to institutions to listen. A directive to students to lead. Above all, a summons to society to affirm the voices of young America—the voices of young journalists who do more than chronicle the fire; they embody its urgency, its heat, and its transformative possibility.