Harsh winter, a huge campus and the Hands On Museum might be new experiences for college freshmen unfamiliar with the University of Michigan, but not for freshman Anurima Kumar. Kumar was born, raised and educated in Ann Arbor. She graduated from Community High School, less than a mile from the center of the University of Michigan.

Graduating in 2016, Kumar is also a Communicator alumna, and took the journalism class for three years, eventually becoming Website Editor. Kumar is still most proud of her op-ed ‘Two Reasons to Take Down the NRA,’ remembering it as the peak of her career at the Communicator.

While Kumar has moved on to a larger campus and crowd than Community, she still finds time to edit and write as a member of the University of Michigan’s newspaper, the Michigan Daily.

She has already helped craft an op-ed about President Trump’s travel ban and its effects, despite only being on the newspaper for less than a semester. The University of Michigan was praised for publicly stating they would not release immigration statuses of students. However, Kumar delved into research conducted behind the statements of her school, and possible consequences of this decision.

“We looked up what all the other universities are doing and they’re all pretty much doing the same thing,” Kumar explained. “But there’s a new thing called ‘sanctuary spaces,’ where if you declare yourself a sanctuary city you cannot get funding [from the government.] It’s like, what line do we draw, and what do we say?”

Whether she is writing for the Communicator or the Michigan Daily, Kumar finds journalism something that is especially important in the present.

“If we stop talking about things, then they will never be talked about,” Kumar said. “When you’re a journalist, you’re putting something out there for so many people to read and see. And if you keep doing that, you’ll get more viewers, more opinions and hopefully more chances to change people.”