Several times throughout the workshop, Papatados repeated the phrase “trend it”- a reminder to focus on stories that capture attention and connect with an audience.
At Bay Shore High School’s annual Ethnic Pen event, students had the chance to put their creative writing skills into action. After attending a presentation from keynote speaker, Dr. Tim Marzullo, students attended workshops led by a diverse group of writers, ranging from poets to journalists, each bringing their own unique voice and perspective. Journalism students had the unique opportunity to hear from “The Power Journalist,” Markos Papatados.
Papatados is passionate about writing. When asked about his favorite type of article to write, he explained that while he enjoys music, entertainment, and sports journalism, he especially favors sports writing because, as he shared, it requires “a lot of research with statistics and learning about parts of games that I didn’t know before.”
Papatados also shared the story of how his career began, offering an inspiring lesson about perseverance. In high school, he loved writing about country music, but it was often rejected for publication, as it was “taboo and not on any New York music station.” He continued writing and everything changed when he joined the newspaper at Queens College. There, his work was finally embraced and he realized that journalism was something he wanted to pursue, showing that, in his words, “rejection is redirection.”
Throughout the workshop, Papatados gave students insight into the exciting aspects of being a journalist. He has attended concerts, previewed films before release, and experienced opportunities many people only dream of, and he does them all for free. Though these perks are great, he made it clear that the true purpose of journalism is connecting with people and telling meaningful stories.
As he explained, “I want people to read something and learn from it…The purpose of writing is to inform and persuade, so I think my work, 24,000 articles does something for everyone.”
His journey shows the power of storytelling and the importance of persistence and dedication.
