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with all of her prior knowledge is evident in their conversations outside of class.

“She has this desire, this fire, to take everything we’ve learned,” Williams said. “Every time I talk to her, I can hear it.”

Through her experience in the field, Irons said she tries to make sure her sources know their voices “really matter.”

“You can’t imagine how many times people have said to me, ‘Why do you need to talk to me? I don’t have anything to say,’” she said. “I would always be like ‘No, you definitely have something to say, and I want to hear it. I’d also like to write about it if you’d let me.’”

Drawing from her experience in “amplifying voices and writing about disparate and marginalized communities,” Irons said journalists should be publishing stories that are representative of the communities and issues that they have covered.

“Every journalist should be looking at their stories … and saying ‘Am I really doing what I really need to be doing to get the full story out?’” Irons said.

Williams said she’s happy to see Irons getting students out into their communities to gain important practical experience.

David Yeung, a junior in the College of Communication studying journalism, said his out-of-the-classroom experience in Irons’ class will assist him in growing as a young reporter.

“It’s a good fundamental backbone, putting myself out there and engaging with the local Boston community to understand more about Boston, about how the city works and how people here feel about various circumstances,” he said.

Irons has also enlisted a pool of media partners to connect her students with local news pioneers and publications in the community.

“[She wants to] help students become reporters who are going to hold the powerful accountable, who are going to be precise and make a difference,” Williams said. “In her very short time here so far, she has built and created courses where students are doing that.”

Irons said she hopes her students learn that in any story, “the stars” are the people being covered.

“The news industry today needs people who are passionate about their work, and are curious about their work, and are curious about other people and are curious enough to stay [in] this business,” Irons said. “It’s not a business where you even get a lot of fame, but it is a business where you get to really amplify the voices of people.”