Former Cry of the Hawk staff members, Katie Bemb and Julz Harvey, are on the road to success. As current college students, they are partaking in many opportunities that are allowing them to reach their goals of being successful writers.

On the Cry of the Hawk staff, there are many different roles that go into news production. These jobs include editors, reporters, video managers, production managers and the editor-in-chief.

Katie Bemb was the last student to hold the editor-in-chief position. “I wanted to be editor-in-chief because I’ve always pursued leadership positions. I enjoy working with people, and I’m always looking for opportunities to grow,” said Bemb. “As editor-in-chief, you have to be willing to go above and beyond, and sometimes that means you spend a lot of extra hours in the lab. People don’t always like management, but I always wanted to make sure that we were doing our absolute best.”

Majoring in journalism and minoring in international development and conflict management at the University of Maryland, Bemb is growing a lot as a journalist.

“The most important thing about being a journalism major for me is critical thinking. You can’t be a good journalist if you’re incapable of analyzing a situation, figuring out what’s worth reporting and who you need to talk to to get the right information,” Bemb said.

Bemb had the opportunity to write “Voices Against Sex Slavery in America,” a book “showcasing a variety of perspectives on how we can begin to move forward in the combat against human trafficking,” Bemb said. “If more lawmakers know about the prevalence of sex trafficking, our laws will apply more pressure to traffickers and increase the likelihood that they will be prosecuted.”

Bemb and her partner Aayushi emailed over 300 people, and conducted multiple in-person and phone interviews in order to get information needed for the book.

Bemb’s work with this issue has become increasingly important to her. “Awareness really is key, people need to be educated about issues like this to ensure greater public safety. Ignorance can get you in a lot of trouble,” Bemb said.

Julz Harvey is another former Cry of the Hawk staff member who has flown from the Nest and moved on to major in broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill School of Journalism.

Harvey said that her journalism internships have supplied her with a set of unique skills and experiences. “I learned how to do even more journalistically with data, which is an expanding field. It gave me a lot of tools that I can use in the future, no matter what field I get into.”

She began her journey with an internship with Capital News Service. CNS is a non-profit, student run news organization out of the journalism school. All journalism majors are required to take a capstone class before they graduate in order to gain real-world experience, and CNS is one of the capstones offered.

“There is an application process, and then they place you in one of the bureaus if you are accepted. I applied exclusively for Studio C, because I had taken a class with the director of the bureau, Sean, before,” said Harvey.

As a data journalist for CNS, Harvey said she “would pull data from the internet, like census data, or information on Congress and the Senate, and put it into excel spreadsheets. Then I would go through the data and look for interesting trends, and then build a graphic from the trends.”

Now, she’s starting as an intern at Takoma Voice. Takoma Voice is an online-only publication which caters to Takoma Park, Maryland.

“I hope to develop a social media plan for them, to increase followers, thus increasing readership. We also want to try some exploration into covering events through social media. I think I will be able to develop my social media skills, which is highly marketable in the job field right now,” said Harvey.

Harvey feels that her internships with organizations such as CNS and Takoma Voice really helped her to learn more about the journalism field.

“It’s important to take every opportunity you are offered because that is the only way you are going to improve. You can still learn just as much from things you don’t enjoy as you do from things you like. The only way you’re going to find your footing is to experience each opportunity as it comes,” Harvey said.

But it all stems back to the North Harford High School journalism program, where Harvey first discovered her love for the field of journalism. “I loved almost every second of writing for the paper and being on the broadcast crew in high school. I was able to develop my editing, design, and writing abilities in a way most people will never get,” Harvey said.

Bemb also commented, “I’ve definitely always had an eye for editing, and that was trained even more during my time with Cry of the Hawk. I also really liked working as a journalist within a school because it didn’t take long for me to get to know more teachers, students and programs.”

Harvey and Bemb believe that the journalism program here at their alma mater helped them prepare for what college and internships would throw at them. “I think that the journalism program at North Harford was invaluable for me when I got to college. The program we had gave me an incredible step ahead on students who had little or no journalism experience in high school,” said Harvey.

Despite the backlash in recent months toward the media, Bemb and Harvey aren’t discouraged.

“Journalists have a rough road ahead of them, especially nowadays. Everyone is questioning or hating on the ‘media,’ and it’s a tough place to be. But that’s what makes it so important. We have to hold one another accountable for reporting the truth, from all angles. Truth is our priority. Nothing should stop us from publishing truth,” Bemb said.