Meet Frederick Quinn, a Summer 2024 Community Reporting Fellow
Quinn will be doing community reporting work in New Orleans this summer as part of the Lede New Orleans fellowship program.
By Patrick Soliz
Frederick Quinn, 24, is focused on giving a voice to his people. He is doing everything possible to make a change for his community and for that reason he is working in a TV news station where he is learning new skills that will help him to succeed in his goal.
He believes in God because his family taught him the value of God and the value of the people.
“I can’t go nowhere without prayer, even if it is to the store,” Quinn said. “It didn’t matter where it was, it was just centered in faith and making sure that is important for me and my family.”
Quinn, who is entering his senior year at the University of New Orleans, is continuing to learn so he can follow his passion and use his skills to help his community. Quinn works at the New Orleans airport and is an intern at a local broadcast news station where he gets to write stories and gain reporting experience.
I spoke with Frederick Quinn to learn more about his interests and reasons for joining the fellowship. Here’s what I heard. Note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why did you want to join the Community Reporting Fellowship program?
Quinn told me that people who are outside of New Orleans often have stereotypes about New Orleans. They believe that New Orleans is really dangerous, but Quinn knows that is not true. For that reason he wants to give a voice to people because he wants to show that the stereotypes that the people put in our community are not true.
“I am in Lede because I’m passionate about giving people a voice, One thing that I’ve always loved was being able to tell stories and Lede is an organization that represent that,” Quinn said.
What do you expect to learn?
Quinn told me he wants to be a journalist. When we talked he was working as an intern for the new station WGNO. He thinks that being a reporter can help him to give people a voice.
“One of the things for me is that I am actually on the path to being a reporter for a news station and one of the things that I have to learn is those keen interview skills,” Quinn said.
What type of stories do you want to share with people?
Quinn wants to share the reality of how Black people and families live and how others treat them because of the color of their skin.
“With Lede I’m gonna be able to give a voice to those people who have these negative things to run with and just show people, especially Black people, that you don’t have to be defined by what somebody else makes of you, you are just as valuable as anybody else.”
What do you think about Hispanic people and Black people? Do you think that one of them suffers more than the other?
Quinn explained to me that he doesn’t discriminate against the Hispanic community because he knows that Hispanic and Black communities discriminate, and both of them suffered the same things.
“I think that we are both discriminated against in an equal amount of ways,” he said. “We deserve to have ourselves heard too; both groups are suffering. So in being part of the Lede fellowship, I am able to help them.”
Patrick Soliz, 21, is filmmaker and a Summer 2024 Community Reporting Fellow. Soliz was born in Bolivia and immigrated to New Orleans in 2021. He is a freshman at the University of New Orleans.
This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.
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