This school year TCA Heights has been honored to have journalist Ms. Shannon Chaffers visit our newsroom each Friday and work with TCA’s student journalism team. Ms. Chaffers works for the New York Amsterdam News newspaper based in Harlem. Each week Ms Chaffers offers her experience and insights to TCA Heights staff, often working extensively one on one with student journalists helping them shape their articles while teaching skills to become a better journalist.
I sat down with Ms. Chaffers to learn more about her experience and goals as a journalist as well as her recent work covering a topic widely known across America: gun violence.
TCA Heights: What inspired you to become a journalist?
Chaffers: I first got into journalism in high school, we had a high school newspaper class kind of like this (TCA Heights/Journalism Elective) where we did articles and I just really enjoyed writing and talking to people who I wouldn’t normally talk too and kind of learn about their experiences and describe that for a wider audience. So I really liked having people read my writing and being informed by what I was writing so that’s when I got interested in journalism. Then I still was interested in it (journalism) in college so I joined the student newspaper where I went to school and still liked it. And I felt like writing was the thing I wanted to do professionally so that’s kind of how I got into journalism. Then pursuing it as a career, I was introduced to this program called Report for America which is for early career journalists, so they match you with a local newspaper and help you get started in your first job and get you used to what it’s like to be a professional journalist.
TCA Heights: With that being said, where did you grow up?
Chaffers: I grew up in a town called Wellesley in Massachusetts, which is a suburb aside of Boston and that’s kind of where I spent most of my early life.
TCA Heights: What is your biggest article?
Chaffers: I guess I can talk about the ones I just published. I think this was a series about the experiences gun violence survivors faced when trying to find housing after their injury if they’re like disabled and need accessible housing. It probably involved the most work on my part to first do all the research, find the people to interview, and organize it in a series format so that it was kind of more digestible for the reader so I’d say the most recent articles are probably the biggest ones I’ve done.
TCA Heights: Why did you choose that topic?
Chaffers: In general, where I work (The Amsterdam News) I cover gun violence and that was kind of the beat that’s assigned to me. Usually when you are a professional journalist you have a topic area that you cover and you’re responsible for covering anything that’s related to that but within that I have a little bit of freedom in terms of deciding what article’s I’m interested in and for the housing series, I was more just talking to people who have been impacted by gun violence and listening to their experiences. A lot of them said that housing was a big challenge and it hadn’t really been written in depth yet so I figured I could give it a shot and I think it’s definitely an issue I don’t think most people think about a lot when they talk about gun violence and I kind of wanted to highlight it.
TCA Heights: Did you go into your investigation with an answer or theory in mind?
Chaffers: I guess I didn’t have an answer but I did have a theory which was that basically it’s very hard for people with disabilities to find housing that’s affordable and accessible which was what other people had told me which was my Hypothesis I guess. I think the article process itself was about learning what specific challenges people face and what kind of programs there are that are designed to help people find housing and how they aren’t working successfully so I think I had an idea that this was an issue but I didn’t have an answer on why this was an issue.
Shannon Chaffers’ dedication to journalism goes beyond writing — it’s about giving a voice to those whose stories often go unheard. Her work with TCA students, alongside her powerful reporting on gun violence, shows how journalism can educate, inspire, and create change. We’re grateful for the chance to learn from her and look forward to seeing the impact she continues to make.
Her Staff profile on the Amsterdam News Website here
Check out some of her articles here
