Head of St. Charles Patch.com, which is starting up at the beginning of December, Kalen Ponche has always had admiration for writing. Kalen has now created her own newspaper just like the one she created when she was younger except probably now with fewer errors and a little more professional. The Ponche Press, was created by a little girl in elementary school who had always showed admiration for writing. In the evenings at her house, Kalen would interview her mom about what they were going to have for dinner, she would draw a picture of spaghetti to demonstrate, and write about her younger brother Logan Ponche getting in trouble. She would turn all of these stories and drawings into her own little newspaper that she would hand out to her family.
Ever since then, she has always dreamed of having her own paper to write in and be in charge of. Some find it hard to realize their life long dream at a young age. Kalen, however, knew what she would love to do.
“I realized when she was really early in grade school, she was always
a really good writer,” Kalen’s mom Diane Ponche said, “And it was something that came easy for her.”
The first major step to help make her dream come true was when she was a sophomore in high school. Kalen joined the newspaper at North. Her junior year she became an editor, and as a senior she was the Editorin-Chief. That year Kalen wrote a story about a teammate on the Tennis team who had been struggling with anorexia, which was one of the things that lead her to win 2003 Missouri Journalist of the year. FHN publications adviser Aaron Manfull encouraged Kalen to apply for the Journalist of the year, she knew it wouldn’t be easy because she had to write a story for the yearbook and work with multimedia which she had never done before.
“It was neat opportunity to try new things and I was really surprised,”
Kalen said, “I burst into tears I was so excited.”
After graduating from North, Kalen attended Truman State University and majored in Journalism. While attending Truman, Kalen studied abroad in England for six months, where she continued to study Journalism.
“I think it was really cool that my sister got to study in Europe,” Kalen’s brother Logan Ponche said. “I feel she learned a lot when she was over
there, that something I think I might want to do sometime.”
Kalen accepted a job at Suburban Journals, shortly after graduating from Truman. Eventually she would be head of the education section, but first she started working in the Courts section. She would have to sit in St. Charles courts, listen to the trials and write about the cases. She remembers once writing about a lady who drank so much during her pregnancy her baby came out with an alcohol blood content level that was too high even for an adult to live through. The lady was later charged with murder.
“She has always been determined to do her best and she has constantly
worked to improve on what she was doing,” North publications adviser Aaron
Manfull said, “I think that is what helped put her in the place she is now.”
Kalen just recently accepted a job at Patch.com, where she will have her own website specifically for St.Charles. Patch.com is a website where you can search by cites in the U.S. and read their latest news and upcoming events. Patch was created to involve local events and news in the area like high school football games and other school or charitable events. Kalen has been working to add additional writers and photographers to the staff to help increase the amount of content that is put on the site.
“Kalen is a better leader than a follower, she likes to be in charge rather
than follow” Diane Ponche said. “ I’m very excited for her to have this job
because she loves to set high standards and she will have the ability to set
high standards a meet them.”
Kalen has exceeded her dream of having her own newspaper, she wrote for a newspaper and now she has her own kind of newspaper online where she is in charge. Kalen also recently received Suburban Journal’s MPA awards for first place in education and outdoor writing. Although it has taken her many years and a lot of experience to get to where she is now. She stuck with what she wanted to do and didn’t give up and she is doing what she loves and what she wants to do for the rest of her life.
“I want to work for a place that I can do good work and be able to grow as a writer and continue to help people with their writing,” Kalen said, “I feel Journalism effects change in the community or just makes some ones day better.”
