Truman Hamade is new to journalism here in Austin, but he's hit the ground running. In the last few months he's covered Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, booked an interview with Dan Rather and is researching a story on Ballet Austin.
And he just turned double digits.
The 10-year-old is among the newest class of 44 kid reporters for Scholastic News, a magazine for elementary school classrooms around the country. All the stories are written by kids.
"I was the only one from Texas and since I’m in the Austin area, I have a good outreach of a lot of news stories," Truman said.
Like many journalists, he had a specific reason for wanting to become a reporter.
"I just think it’d be great to just meet people and interview them and write stories about people that are making a change in the community or just doing something exciting," Truman said.
His first story for Scholastic focused on relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey. He interviewed volunteers gathering supplies for people in Houston and a pilot flying back and forth from Austin to deliver those supplies.
While he was already off to a successful start as a reporter, he wanted to learn about a news medium he's listened to most of his life: radio.
I came to his class at Redeemer Lutheran School to teach him radio reporting. He interviewed classmates and his teacher about the use of electronics in fifth grade. As a KUT fan and new reporter, Truman said getting to do interviews for his favorite radio station was nerve-wracking.
"[I was] kind of nervous but excited because I listen to KUT a lot," he said. "One minute you're listening, and the next you’re actually doing the stuff."
