 'When the pupil is ready the teacher appears" is an old adage, but what it doesn't say is that sometimes the most unexpected people become the teacher. I-chun Che, our Cupertino reporter, has become one of those unexpected teachers, and now she's moving on.
She's heading for Juneau, Alaska where she will work for the Juneau Empire, a daily newspaper. I-chun has been with Silicon Valley Community Newspapers just a little over two years. When I arrived over a year ago, she was the features writer for Cupertino and Sunnyvale and later became the news reporter for the Cupertino Courier.
When SVCN embarked on our path of civic journalism—which involves digging deeper into the community to find the real issues people are facing, their successes, their everyday frustrations, their stories—I-chun took to it immediately and became an outstanding civic journalist—though she says hates that term.
She has an insatiable curiosity about almost everything. She is one of those journalists who cares about the people and issues she writes about. She has so much enthusiasm about the stories she writes that she can't quite keep up with herself. She goes out to do one story and comes back with three more. In fact, she leaves a little frustrated for all the stories she'd wanted to do but can't possibly finish.
It isn't easy to describe I-chun. She is extraordinarily bright and idealistic but absolutely down to earth, realistic and easy to talk to about anything. She's sweet and vulnerable and yet unafraid to ask the tough questions of people she interviews. That's because she cares about getting the whole story. And because she's so completely open herself, people trust her and open up to her. That goes for us here at the office, too.
And the fact that I-chun is Taiwanese and speaks Chinese has given her particular insight and access into the growing Asian community, a part of Cupertino that might be otherwise untapped. She's covered this population with candor and sensitivity. She's partnered with Allison Rost, our features reporter, in putting to gether our "Bridging the Cultural Gap" column. The two of them have even participated in a television show that will air later this year, discussing their experiences while gathering information for the column.
What I-chun leaves behind are a wealth of stories that give real insight into Cupertino and Sunnyvale. When I want to teach a new reporter about civic journalism, I point to I-chun's stories. She has helped our company understand just how to go about this ambitious goal.
So we say good-bye to our wonderful reporter/teacher and know that Juneau, Alaska is getting the best.
Sandy Sims is the editor of The Courier. Contact her at 408.200.1055 or ssims@svcn.com.
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