Q&A with Elizabeth Miller, journalist at OPB
Elizabeth Miller is a journalist covering education at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Elizabeth was drawn to broadcasting at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, where she signed up for the campus radio station on her first day of classes and eventually ran the news program. She arrived in Oregon in 2019 and settled in Sunnyside. At OPB, she has been overseeing “Class of 2025,” a project following students from kindergarten through high school graduation. The 13-year project recently concluded; OPB will air a one-hour documentary on Nov. 13th. We talked about the relationship-building that goes into a multi-year documentary project, why public media is so important in a city’s news ecosystem, and what she loves about living in Sunnyside. See more about the project at opb.org/specialreport/class-of-2025
Where do you come from?
Elizabeth: I’m from Columbus. I moved from Cleveland, Ohio, where I worked for the NPR/PBS station covering the Great Lakes and environmental issues.
How did you become a journalist?
Elizabeth: I worked for the Ohio House of Representatives as a page, that’s when I started getting more into news and politics, and I wanted to be a political reporter. Then I interned at one of the Columbus NPR stations, and I thought: ‘This is amazing.’ After college, I interned at NPR in D.C. on the national desk. That’s when I realized ‘I’m into this. I love it.’ Because before, I did not love public radio. As a child, my grandpa listened to it. He used to pick me up and drop me off at school, and it would always be playing; I hated it. I was like: ‘It’s so boring. They sound so uninteresting.’ And now I love it.
When you were interviewed for the job, did they say you were going to be a part of the Class of 2025 project?
Elizabeth: It was a part of the interview, and part of the reason that I was interested in this job is because my boss had my job (before me), so he had experience and he obviously liked working there. I was excited to have an expert as a boss. I had also never covered education before, but yeah, they talked about this project.
Let’s back up. What is the project?
Elizabeth: This project is called the Class of 2025. In 2012, Gov. John Kitzhaber made a big pronouncement that by 2025, 100% of Oregon students were going to graduate high school. My boss, Rob Manning glommed onto that and thought, ‘This isn’t just numbers. This isn’t just statistics. These are real kids.’ He got approval from his boss to find some kids to follow all the way through their educational career. They all started in the same school: Earl Boyles Elementary School in Southeast Portland. The documentary focuses on seven kids. We tracked them all the way through high school. We’re telling you their stories. I picked it up in 2019 when the kids were in sixth grade.
What happened?
Elizabeth: The students are in a low- to middle-class area of Portland. You see that they’re just trying to make it; the resiliency comes through the challenges they’re dealing with–from an illness to a student who’s having behavioral issues. Attendance becomes a big challenge for several of the students and you hear how those challenges, and other things that they’re dealing with, get them through. But then there are things like a couple of our students are athletes in high school and how sports helps them. One student is in the school musical. You get to see her in that role and how important her relationship with her teacher is and how connected she feels to school because of her teacher. I think our goal is to of show what it’s really like for students today.
This is 13 years of work and a lot of footage to pull from. How did you put together a documentary?
Elizabeth: Some years are spottier than others but we wanted to show the progression. That’s the coolest part of this project. You literally see these kids grow up.
This is something that’s brought up in the documentary, that the observation by a journalist changes the outcomes. Do you think that being a part of their lives changed some of their outcomes a little bit?
Elizabeth: Yes. We have direct evidence of that because a couple of the parents made a point to tell us at graduation that part of their kid graduating was because he was on this project.
It’s so interesting the way this project is intertwined in their lives. Do these kids text you? Do they get in touch with you? They’re not just subjects of a study or report.
Elizabeth: Yes, they’re not just subjects, like you said. I know so many things that parents have told me or that the kids have texted me that are not going to make it into any story, but it is part of relationship-building. We care about these kids. It’s hard not to. I definitely do text some of ‘em.
One thing I really pride myself on as a journalist is being transparent. I treat sources how I want to be treated. I think especially with young people, there’s a lot that needs to be explained. But we also have protections for the students. We don’t use their last names, which is not a traditional practice. I’m approaching them like I would any source, but also as young people–as teenagers who still have a lot of learning to do.
What are you going to do after this project is over?
Elizabeth: I’ll go back to reporting on education. One thing that I’m really interested in is the different new ways that schools are trying to serve students. One of those ways is through virtual schools. I think there’s a lot to be discovered about it, how that works for some students and doesn’t work for others.
What do you love about the Sunnyside neighborhood?
Elizabeth: I love the walkability. I love the variety of things to do. And there’s Laurelhurst Park. I don’t know if that’s technically in Sunnyside, but there’s Laurelhurst Park on one end. There’s the Baghdad Theater. There’s just so much to do and eat and drink and see. It’s also really easy to get to other places. Just hop on the 15 or the 14 bus! And it’s a very bike-friendly neighborhood!
Anything you’d like to see be better about Sunnyside?
Elizabeth: I think Sunnyside is perfect. My one gripe is a Portland gripe, which is the cars being able to park super close to stop signs and the edge of the street. It’s the worst thing. Horrible for visibility. Horrible for safety.
Tell me why it’s so important that everyone in Sunnyside supports public media.
Elizabeth: I feel like public media is the closest thing we have to truly community news, and it’s free. The accessibility of it is amazing to me, but also just the ability to tell stories that go beyond the headline, beyond the shiny thing, and just give you that context. I think one other thing that public media is really vital for is connecting people to their community. You get to know people through stories, whether it’s radio or online. I feel like public media does a great job of showing who people are and letting them share their own story. That’s why I say ‘community media’ because it’s like we’re connecting our audience to their neighbors and other people in their lives and other people they might not ever have a connection with.
