Roving Teen Reporter: Hinano Interviews Sneha

For Sneha Lele, various factors fostered her passion towards journalism—but one stands out: the numerous movies shown during her high school journalism class, especially the movie “She Said.” Sneha brought up this movie in particular, as something that remains memorable to this day. “The story of the journalists’ work made such a big impact on me, it was just a revolution,” she said.

Another large component of her journalism pursuit was the school’s “baby paper” project. For the annual end-of-the-year project of the Torrey Pines High School Beginning Journalism class, students create a “baby paper,” a collaborative effort in creating a published newspaper. Sneha was editor-in-chief for this project, which she says brought into self-recognition her leadership nature, combined with the love for reading others’ stories.

“I love managing people and helping them with everything they’re doing. I love reading and editing their stories, because I get to see so many perspectives,” she said.

Joining the Torrey Pines High School student newspaper the Falconer her junior year, Sneha continued her love for reading others’ stories as a staff writer, and even furthered it by securing a position as copy editor for the upcoming school year.

Sneha says she wrote mostly for the opinion section, her favorite section and something she feels resonates perfectly with the style of the Del Mar Sandpiper.

“I think the Sandpiper welcoming student writers is brilliant and they’re getting a really good range of perspectives. And I’m super excited to be a part of that,”

Sneha believes there is a unique and unmatched quality to such a local, community-based platform as the Del Mar Sandpiper.

“I think, even getting a small town perspective … is like we’re putting pieces of the puzzle into a whole thing,” she said. “Believe it or not, every single puzzle piece matters to make the whole story, to make the pieces fit.”

In addition, Sneha hopes to reach out to different people in the community as a roving teen reporter.

“In 20 years, we’re going to be the next lawyers, doctors, policymakers…so getting our voices out as early as possible is extremely important,” she said.

As an incoming teen reporter myself and a co-member of the Falconer, I am extremely excited to work with Sneha as roving teen reporters.