Isabella Nelson
Advertising Director
I'm the advertising Director for Wingspan and a sophomore at Nixa High school. Through journalism I've realized how truly important the first amendment right is. With the access to freedom of speech and freedom of press we have it is so important to get out peoples words who are being silenced or don't have a chance to speak their truth. My work with journalism has allowed me to speak to people from many different walks of life and get their stories and news out to as many people as I can. When I was younger I was very shy and could never get my words and opinions out to people and I was always talked over. Over time I have been able to gain back my confidence in public speaking, within my reporting for journalism I want to give a voice to those who have been talked over. A future goal of mine would be to help lead the new kids coming into the class and make journalism not seem like something scary and more of something that is an escape.
Meet the Tri.wi Tinsen
Contact me at:
28isabellanelson@nixastudents.net
01. December 9th, 2025
A story covering jobs and organizations helping Homeless people in Nixa and Springfield. This is a topic I am very passionate about and I want to raise more awareness about homelessness as a whole. Unhoused people have so much stigma towards them and this often causes people to have misconceptions for what it is like to be living on the streets. I wanted to give people a better understanding of common situations that can cause homelessness and how hard it is to get back on their feet, which I think I did well. I'm very proud of this story as a whole and I think it came together quite good. I learned that homelessness among students is a lot more common than people think and that there is different definitions of legally homeless. The Wingspan benefitted from this because the Nixa school district is a primarily well off school, this story helped fix some of the student bodies misconceptions on homelessness.
Help For the Homeless
02. March 3rd, 2026
A Perspective into Performance
A story covering a social media trend mostly impacting teen and young adult guys, with the main goal being to get attention from the student body. I wanted to explain why this trend had taken off and how it can be damaging for all parties involved. I wanted readers to understand how this trend affects how teen guys interact with those around them. During this I learned that the guys given this label didn't give it to themselves. With this piece I am most proud of the popularity of it within the student body. Many people read it because of the topic but got something meaningful out of it. This story benefitted the Wingspan because this is a topic a lot of students know about and are interested in reading.
Photo by: Lewen Faith Wilson
03. October 7th, 2025
Teens in Tune
A story about student led bands, talking about the good and bad. I have known multiple people who run their own bands and had been thinking about doing a story on them for a couple of months. While I was writing this story 2 out of 4 of the bands I had been trying to interview broke up, this was a learning experience that I should always have back up people to interview. This story was written to give people the extra boost to start their own band, even if it's just for fun and they don't plan on performing to make money. I was able to accomplish this because people have talked to me about restarting their bands back up. The Wingspan benefitted from this story by broadening the story topics, and having one centered around student activities outside of school.
Photo by: Glennis Woosley
04. October 14th, 2025
Courage on Campus
A story written for an on site competition at MSU for the Nixa Journalism department. This was my first ever time being in an on site competition, and having a timed couple of hours to write a story. My goal was to finish on time with a well constructed story, which was achieved. I ended up really liking the story we wrote. The experience was so fun and has made competitions less daunting to me. I definitely would love to do more in the future.
Ethics
Journalism plays a critical role in a democratic society by allowing people to voice their thoughts and get new information, journalism allows for citizens to find out what their political leaders are doing so they can stay checked with their power. with journalism and the technology we have available people everyday are able to learn important information. An ethical journalistic should strive to use their first amendment rights to speak theirs, and others voices. They should be up to date on the information they share and should always use the SPJ code of ethics when reporting, no false news, or unethical things should be printed or published.