Gen O

LeAnne Bugay

GEN O // STORY BY KARA SCHWEISS DEDICATED TO TELLING STORIES IN ALL FORMS

BELLEVUE STUDENT’S PEN FIGHTS FOR TRUTH

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN // DESIGN BY MATT WIECZOREK

BELLEVUE WEST HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT NEWSPAPER ADVISER JULIE ROWSE SAID SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHEN SHE REALIZED LEANNE BUGAY WAS GOING TO STAND OUT AS A STUDENT JOURNALIST. A GROUP OF BELLEVUE WEST STUDENTS, INCLUDING THEN-SOPHOMORE BUGAY, ACCOMPANIED ROWSE’S FELLOW JOURNALISM ADVISER AARON STUEVE TO THE NEBRASKA STATE CAPITOL IN 2018 TO REPORT ON LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS RELATED TO LB 886. ROWSE, WHO WAS TESTIFYING IN FAVOR OF THIS BILL PROPOSING FREEDOM OF SPEECH PROTECTION FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS, WATCHED BUGAY CONFIDENTLY APPROACH STATE SENATOR ADAM MORFELD AND NATIONALLY KNOWN STUDENT JOURNALISM ADVOCATE FRANK LOMONTE.

“She was fearless,” Rowse said. “I had never seen that in one of my student journalists before, that level of assertiveness and the desire to talk to the right people and get the story. I knew at that moment she was going to be the type of journalist I had been wanting to see since I took over the newspaper program at Bellevue West.”

The 2020 graduate said she had an interest in writing growing up and was intrigued by visual media, but her interest in journalism solidified after she took three semester-long elective classes in introductory journalism her freshman year.

“My freshman year I did a couple of activities here and there, but it didn’t really stick until I got into journalism,” she said. “I found that this is the thing I really like.”

The next year, through an application process, she joined the staffs of the Thunderbeat student newspaper, which has web and print components, and the school’s video yearbook, which publishes online and supplies supplemental content, in disk form, to Bellevue West’s print yearbook.

Rowse characterized Bugay as “someone dedicated to telling stories in all forms,” and said the school’s journalism program is comprehensive. Rowse and Stueve are published writers who have high expectations for their journalism students, but also foster an encouraging atmosphere.

“SHE WAS FEARLESS, I HAD NEVER SEEN THAT IN ONE OF MY STUDENT JOURNALISTS BEFORE, THAT LEVEL OF ASSERTIVENESS AND THE DESIRE...I KNEW AT THAT MOMENT SHE WAS GOING TO BE THE TYPE OF JOURNALIST I HAD BEEN WANTING TO SEE.” -JULIE ROWSE

“Our goal is to provide the most holistic journalistic experience for our students so that when they go into journalism—or marketing or business or nursing or education or whatever—that they have this skillset of communication they can apply to pretty much any career they choose,” she explained.

Bugay said that as she attained leadership roles on the three student media teams, she enjoyed transitioning into becoming a mentor for younger student journalists. By her senior year, Bugay was editor-in-chief of the Thunderbeat for a second year, director of the video yearbook, and she joined the print yearbook staff to serve as copy editor. The larger world had taken notice of her skills, too. A fiveminute documentary she produced about a student athlete at Bellevue West, “Grace,” was accepted to the Omaha Film Festival this past March, one of the last large-scale area events before COVID-19 hit. In summer 2019, she spent a week in Washington, D.C., as the Nebraska representative at the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference for incoming high school seniors interested in journalism. Bugay relished the immersion experience and made likeminded contacts. She said they have become “some of the best friends I will ever meet.”

“I’ve always been a very dedicated and hardworking person, and journalism is something that you definitely have to be invested in and work hard at to get good at,” Bugay said. “I had learned early on from some mentors, like my teachers, that in the journalism and communication fields nowadays it’s really important to have a wide variety of mediums you can work through. I enjoyed those mediums, so I invested in learning how to take good photos, how to make a good video story, how to write clearly, how to do short, tight news writing and also try to expand to some fluffier entertainment writing,” she said. “I’ve really tried to expand my skills across all mediums and I enjoy all of them. I don’t think I have a favorite.” continued on page 55