When Anika Bruce, 12, applied to be a Scholastic kids reporter, she said she wanted to write a story on The Road Home homeless shelter and gave them a sample of her work. Months later, after she was named to the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps, her first assignment was to cover how people at The Road Home celebrated the holidays.

“I wrote about how people were taking in donations to help those struggling parents have things for Christmas,” Anika said.

Anika, who is a seventh-grader at Copper Mountain Middle School, was chosen from more than 200 applicants from around the country and around the world who submitted original news reports about their communities.

The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is a team of 32 journalists, ages 10-14, who report on “news for kids, by kids” with coverage of current events, breaking news, entertainment stories and sports events from their home towns and on the national stage. Their stories appear on the Scholastic News Online website and in select issues of Scholastic classroom magazines, which are read by more than 25 million students in classrooms nationwide.

In the past, kid reporters have interviewed politicians, entertainers, authors, sports stars—and even a sitting president, Barack Obama. They’ve also gathered “Tips from the Pros” from such journalists as Brian Williams and Soledad O’Brien.

“My mom found the Scholastic Kids website and asked if I was interested in being a reporter, so I applied. They asked for a sample news article, why I wanted to be a reporter and if I had any ideas to write about,” Anika said.

A transplant to Utah two years ago from New York, Anika finished fifth grade at Daybreak Elementary when she started her own blog, girls-rock.org, that she started to “encourage girls to empower themselves without being judged.”

“I’ve only had one assignment so far. I pitched an idea to talk to President (Barack) Obama’s speechwriter when he was in Idaho, but that didn’t happen. I’m hoping to interview Mia Love next,” she said.

Although she doesn’t get paid, Anika said she enjoys writing. However, she hopes to pursue a career in science or math, but knows writing will help her in whichever career field she chooses.

“It’s all fun, and I’m pretty happy doing it,” she said.

In her spare time, Anika does volunteer work, likes to sing and recently performed in her ballet school’s production of “Pinocchio.”