“I like to play board games with my family,” Gladson-Pang said. “We don’t really get to spend that much time together otherwise. I try to force them to play games as much as possible before I leave for college and we’re all far away and won’t get the chance.”
Her favorite board game is Machi Koro, a Japanese game where players build their own business interests and fend off competitors.
So, while she might not be a real life business tycoon, Gladson-Pang is a tycoon with many other hobbies and talents including journalism and cross-country.
As a senior at Arcadia High School, Gladson-Pang runs on her school’s award-winning cross country team, and is stepping into the role of Editor-in-Chief this fall for the school newspaper the Arcadia Quill.
Gladson-Pang said her love of writing has existed within her since she was young, but recently, journalism and in-depth reporting have become new passions, mainly set forth by her love for National Geographic magazine.
“I love how intensive the story reporting of National Geographic is,” she said. “One story could take a reporter a year to write. There’s so much depth of info in that writing is its own form of storytelling. That’s really magnificent to me. I aspire to be the kind of journalist that can put so much work into a piece and produce such an amazing result.”
Gladson-Pang said her love for journalism began when she first watched the Max political drama series “The Newsroom.”
“The vitality and importance of that show and reporting pictured in it was really inspiring to me to start journalism at my school newspaper,” she said. “‘The Newsroom’ is about broadcast journalism so it’s a little different than what I do at school, but at the same time, the information and the weight of what you’re doing is pretty similar.”
But Gladson-Pang isn’t just a writer. She’s an avid reader as well.
“My favorite book is ‘The Jungle’ by Upton Sinclair,” she said. “It can be a bit tough to read because it’s long and weighty, but it’s a very moving story. It’s told through a very unexpected lens. The storytelling is wonderful, and we love muckraking journalism, so Upton for the win!”
There is one thing she does know: journalism and the writing field will always have a special place in her heart.
“I like history and I like English, but journalism seems like a very broad field where I can fulfill a lot of my interests, and do something meaningful with my time,” she said. “It’s the type of field that allows me to fulfill all of my interests and passions.”
As an Arcadia young Democrats officer, Ellie Gladson-Pang volunteered at the California Democratic Convention. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Gladson-Pang)
Ellie Gladson-Pang runs on the Arcadia cross country team. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Gladson-Pang)
Ellie Gladson-Pang often attends other schools track and cross country meets with her twin sister and friends. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Gladson-Pang)
Ellie Glandson-Pang and her twin sister Lizzie Gladson-Pang volunteer at the Arcadia Street fair helping kids with art projects. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Gladson-Pang)
Although she often conducts interviews as a journalist, Gladson-Pang is occasionally in front of the camera, sharing her views. (Photo courtesy of Ellie Gladson-Pang)
