Star Tribune
Meet the state’s top student journalist, who first learned English from sci-fi books and Duolingo
Rita Li came to the United States from China at the age of 9, knowing only “yes,” “no” and “hi.” Fast forward nine years, and Li, a senior at St. Paul Academy, was recently named the state’s top student journalist by the Journalism Educators of Minnesota.
Li says that Duolingo and science fiction books played a role in her mastery of English. But teachers say her creativity, perseverance and attention to detail are factors that fueled her recent accomplishments. Eye On St. Paul recently dropped in on Li at SPA to ask the Woodbury resident about her journey and her plans for the future. This story was edited for length.
Q: Did you really use Duolingo to master English?”
A: Yes. When I first came here, I was very scared. For a whole year, I would be doing programs on my iPad. And I had my own vocabulary list. Sometimes, I’d get pulled out of class for extra trainings. “What are these emotions called?” In 4th grade, I had to learn all 50 states and their capitals. Then we had to pick a state and do a whole research paper on it. That was my first year and I was like, “Wow, a little challenging.” But the [English as a Second Language] teacher believed I could do it. And together, we just worked on it for a whole month. I grew a lot.
There were times when I cried and I was I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s so hard. But when I was done, I could understand basic concepts.
Q: How long did that take you?
A: I want to say a year. To strengthen my skills, I would read an hour every day and what I didn’t know, I would look up. And that’s how I learned English.
Q: How did you go from that to writing in English?
A: It would not be something that me coming here as a 9-year-old old would have dreamed. I recognized that English was my weakness. At first, I thought I was a STEM kid, good at math because math is a universal language. It was freshman year when I got this English teacher who really encouraged me to write sci-fi. I wrote in Creative Writing and I’m like, “Oh my God, I can do this.” And I got invested. And I read a lot of sci-fi books.
Q: Why did you make the leap to journalism?
A: When I transferred to SPA my sophomore year, I decided to do journalism to push myself because I recognized this was my weakness. At first, it was really daunting. I had this slight denial, “I’ll never be as good as anyone is.” As I learned more people’s stories, as I tell their stories, and interview people, I found the joy of telling stories, of learning new things. When I cover stories, I am able to learn things I would not have otherwise. It’s good to know the backstage people when we cover theater. “How’s it like doing the lighting?”
Q: Do you still read sci-fi?
A: Not much. It was right before COVID, when everyone on the bus was holding books. [Reading] was something really hard for me and it takes a lot of time. When everyone else was talking about it, I said maybe I’ll try it. I really like it. And that’s when I started to write.
Q: Of the stories you have done so far, what has been the most difficult?
A: It was my second editorial. It was about fostering a sense of belonging in the SPA community. Last year, we decided to write something on the sense of belonging. But the lens we decided to focus on was too big. That could include the things we say, and sexism, in classrooms, in settings. I remember going through four drafts. And then it was “This is not it. We’re not going to publish something that’s incomplete.”
Q: What has been the most fun story you’ve written?
A: My beat is Mic the Spartan. [Spartan] is our mascot. So, basically, it’s giving a player a microphone and we’re able to hear how they grunt, how they cheer, when they’re at practice. I think one of my most fun stories was having someone take a Go-Pro and having them swim with that. Taking it underwater. I think that’s the furthest I’ve pushed myself on a multimedia story.
Q: You write for print and online. Tell me about your digital work.
A: I am one of the senior leaders. My role is called creative design manager. I basically oversee the website design, video, the podcasts. The multimedia segments. I also write stories.
Q: Do you want to pursue journalism or something else?
A: Right now, I’m committed to majoring in sociology, or something in psychology. I think I’m still trying to figure that out.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
