WNC intern Colin Moyer updates new donor database.

Joining the WNC team this summer is Colin Moyer, who just completed his first year at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

As a high school senior at Curtis High School near Tacoma, Colin made a name for himself when he approached school officials about starting a school sponsored newspaper.  School administrators said sure, but they insisted on reviewing content of any paper before allowing it to go to press.  Finding this unacceptable, Colin pulled together a group of Curtis students, who launched “The Viking Underground” — an off campus student-produced paper. They printed and distributed the paper during the entire 2008-09 school year, covering a range of topics relating to the school community, and did so without prior review by school authorities.

For his efforts on behalf of student press rights, Colin received a Special Recognition Award from the Washington Journalism Education Association. He also received the National and Washington state ACLU Youth Activist Award for outstanding commitment to the protection and promotion of civil liberties.

Colin now works on the staff of the Occidental College newspaper, and looks forward to starting his sophomore year there in the fall.