COLUMN: Look out world, here comes ‘Charlotte’

I met Kaitlyn Epps seven years ago, when she was in the fifth grade at Stratford Academy.

I was teaching high school journalism, and I had been asked to narrate a play for the lower school. It was “Charlotte’s Web,’’ one of my favorites.

Kaitlyn had the role of the barn spider, Charlotte A. Cavatica. It was appropriate she was cast as the smallest character, since she has always been one of the tiniest students in her class.

When she got older, I often would see her in the hallways. The middle school years can be a dreadful age, but Kaitlyn appeared to be satisfied with life and on her way to becoming a content young lady.

She was a sophomore in the fall of 2022, when schools were coming out of COVID protocols, masks were disappearing and I began to recognize faces I hadn’t seen in a while. I was pleased when I noticed Kaitlyn had signed up for journalism as her elective. 

On the first day of school, I asked students to introduce themselves and tell the class something we might not know about them. I then went around the room and talked about the connections I had with each of them. Some had been in the journalism program for two or three years, so I knew those kids well. For the ones I had not taught before, I mentioned if I knew their parents or grandparents. Or if I had taught an older sister or brother.

It was easy when I turned to Kaitlyn. She and I went all the way back to that stage with Wilbur, Fern, Templeton, Homer and Lurvy.

E.B. White became another strand in that web of connectivity. He was the author of “Charlotte’s Web,’’ which was ranked No. 1 in a School Library Journal poll of the 100 greatest children’s books.

Those dots soon started to connect in another way besides a children’s play. White co-authored “The Elements of Style” with William Strunk Jr.  The classic English language style guide is considered a bible for writers and journalists. 

And Kaitlyn was taking her first steps as a journalist.

Over the past three years, I have watched Kaitlyn blossom into a confident leader in the school’s journalism department.

Although I retired from teaching last spring to write for The Melody, we have stayed in touch. She served as co-editor of The Gazebo this year and was a fixture as an anchor on the “Good Morning, Stratford” broadcasts. She received the “Excellence in Journalism” award at Honors’ Day two weeks ago.

Kaitlyn will graduate on May 17.  In the fall, she will head to Auburn University, where she plans to major in journalism.

I am proud of her.

As part of graduation requirements, Stratford students must complete a three-week “Senior Project.’’ They select a professional in the community in a field they are interested in learning more about and report to work 15 hours each week.

It’s not not on the level of an internship, but it is more than a glorified shadowing experience. 

I was pleased when Kaitlyn asked if she could do her “Senior Project” with me at The Melody. I had a number of Stratford students do their projects with me when I was a columnist for The Telegraph. Among them was Sarah Hammond, who went on to become a television reporter with WMAZ-TV and is now with Atlanta News First.

In the “Senior Superlatives” section of the yearbook, Kaitlyn’s classmates voted her as having the “Prettiest Eyes.’’ I have spent much of these past two weeks opening those eyes to the world of
journalism.

She has gotten to hang out in The Melody newsroom, and attend “budget” meetings, where reporters plan and discuss the stories we are working on. We also are visiting local radio and television stations and marketing firms.

She has tagged along on my interviews, all the way from the dirt of the gardens at Brookdale to the offices of the Community Foundation on the top floor (16th) of the Fickling building, the highest point in downtown Macon. 

We attended last week’s 200th anniversary celebration and monument dedication for the 48th Infantry Brigade. And she went with me for my speaking engagement to a large and enthusiastic senior adult group at Ingleside Baptist Church. (She was a senior, too, only in high school.)

I have been introducing her to some of Macon’s iconic restaurants, including H&H Soul Food. (A first-timer at the Cotton Avenue restaurant, she ordered macaroni & cheese, which counts as a
vegetable in the South.)

Kaitlyn has been recording video testimonials to share on the Melody’s social media pages. Among the highlights of her first two weeks was the annual “Grady Salutes” program at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

She made the trip to Athens with me and my wife. Her brother, Parker, is a sophomore at UGA, so she got to visit with him while we were on campus. On the way up, she talked about how her parents met when they were students at Georgia. Her mother, Elizabeth, is from the North Georgia mountain community of Helen. Her father, Rick, is from the South Georgia town of Bainbridge, where he was high school classmates with Georgia coach Kirby Smart.

She said her father has been taking her on father-daughter trips to Orlando since she was a little girl, and how they share a special love of Disney and Universal Studios.

So you can imagine how thrilled she was when we sat under the big tent on the front lawn of the journalism school and she began reading the bio of Eric Baker, one of the four Grady grads receiving alumni awards. He was the recipient of the John Holliman Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award, the same award I received last year.

Baker’s career spans nearly three decades at Universal Creative and Disney World. He is the senior creative director for Universal Creative, working with “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Ministry of Magic.’’

Although she was somewhat nervous, Kaitlyn asked if she could meet him. We walked over, and I introduced them. He was gracious enough to spend time talking with her, and he was impressed with her passion for Harry Potter and all things Disney.

I later told Kaitlyn you can never meet too many people or shake too many hands. Put yourself out there, let them know who you are and what you can do, work hard and climb the ladder.

It was just one of the many journalism lessons she has learned. There will be others.

Look out, world, here comes “Charlotte.’’

Ed Grisamore is a longtime newspaper columnist in Middle Georgia and the author of nine books.