Various story ideas to explore refugees in Clarkston

Since I feel pretty confident that I’ll my individual project will center around refugees in Clarkston, Georgia, and how their lives are affected by sports, these are five variations of how that could play out.

1. As of now, my top choice for a story would focus on the children and their families who are part of the Fugees Family soccer team. I’d like to look at what motivated their parents to have them join a sports team and whether that has helped the children acclimate to the community. I would explore what type environment this soccer team provides and the challenges they have faced since arriving in the United States. For this angle, the emphasis would be on the families’ adjustment in the new area and how soccer has benefited their kids.
2. Another angle for a story about Fugees Family centers around the founder, Luma Mufleh. She has an interesting background, as she grew up in a wealthy family in Jordan. She noticed that she grew up being handed anything she wanted while other children were far less fortunate. That motivated her to found Fugees Family in 2004. This is the angle that has been primarily covered by other news outlets, which makes it less attractive for me to write. I think an angle that focuses on the players and their families would be more compelling, even if it is more difficult to reach the sources.
3. Finally, a story could focus on the combination of Fugees Family and Fugees Academy, the academic component of the soccer program that was added in 2008. In 2016, the school graduated its first senior class and 86 students are currently enrolled. This story would look at how a soccer team grew into something that affects the children on a larger scale. It would be very interesting to dive into the dynamic of an all-refugee school. That being said, this could be a small piece of any Fugees Family story and might not warrant an entire story.
4. As a solid backup plan, there are other routes I could go to explore the intersection between refugees and sports in Clarkston, Georgia. During my reporting for the story I wrote last year, I found out that refuges made up about 90 percent of Clarkston High School’s cross country team. The concept of working with a team from a public high school would be interesting since it directly displays how these children are becoming part of a new community. The boys’ cross country team won the Georgia 5A state title in both 2014 and 2015, so that would add a strong athletic component to the story.
5. Even though the cross country team has been successful at the state level, another similar story would be to look into the environment at Clarkston High School, using the football team as a lens. I’d assume that the makeup of the football team is somewhat similar to that of cross country since the percentage of students who are refugees at Clarkston is very high. In the last two seasons, Clarkston only won one game and it is off to an 0-2 start this year. Therefore, there wouldn’t be the draw of having athletic accomplishments like the cross country team, but in general people are more interested in football. I don’t know how reliable some of these sites are, but a few places show the football roster only having 12 players. That could make this an interesting story.