When East Noble graduate Taylor Lehman started out as one of the leaders on The Knightly Scroll in his junior year of high school, he had no idea that his determination and leadership could both get a school newspaper and his journalism career off the ground.

“I didn’t even want to go into journalism when The Knightly Scroll was established in 2013,” he claimed. “I wanted to be a teacher or a physical therapist. I just knew that I liked to write about things that were going on, and I had talked to Mr. [Matt] Rickey about how I wished there was a school newspaper at the school.”

The Knightly Scroll, East Noble’s online student newspaper, was established in the spring of 2013 by a group of East Noble High School English teachers, who all wanted to help bring the news to the East Noble community. Their goal was to make the newspaper mainly student-run, and then-junior Taylor Lehman proved that he was the student to get the ball rolling, as he was named co-Editor-in-Chief.

As the school year came to a close in the spring and a new one began in the fall, Lehman, a freshman and current early admit to IU’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, was ready to tackle his first full year as one of the leaders of The Knightly Scroll.

With help from the advisors, he was able to make connections with the local radio station, 95.5 “The Hawk,” go on the radio to promote the newspaper, interview Indiana News Center’s weatherman, Curtis Smith, and do a story on camera, when he and Jonathon Kane, a former staff member for The Knightly Scroll, made a multimedia story covering the bike day that East Noble’s Special Education program hosted at the end of the school year.

“I had never done any of that stuff before. I was always a quiet and shy guy,” Lehman commented, “The biggest thing The Knightly Scroll taught me is to never be afraid of any situation, no matter the size. By throwing myself into the mix early on, I’ve learned skills that I still use today at my new job for the Indiana Daily Student.”

Before his senior year, Lehman had no experience writing for a newspaper, but with a combination of research, observation, and applying skills learned in his English classes, he was able to experience what it was like to write for a newspaper.

“My work for The Knightly Scroll has not only helped me in high school, but in college as well,” he explained. “I put it on applications for the Indiana Daily Student and it was enough to push me ahead of other freshmen in the process to get on board.”

Lehman now studies journalism with a concentration in sports. Since being assigned the beat for track and field at IU, Lehman has interviewed future Olympians and past Olympians, including Taylor University’s track coach, David Neville, an IU alum who won both gold and bronze medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

He has also had the opportunity to travel to New York City. There, he toured media outlets, such as MSNBC, Sports Illustrated, and Wall Street Journal, and made connections with their staff and editors, like MSNBC president Phil Griffin, anchor Chris Hayes, and various IU alumni who work at several other media outlets in The Big Apple.

“That trip was truly inspiring,” Lehman said. “It seems like every week I’m meeting new people who influence my career in so many different ways, and I’m only skimming the surface of my experiences here at IU.”

After college, Lehman’s ultimate goal is to someday win a Pulitzer Prize.

“I’ve talked to others about hoping to win one and they just laugh because it sounds like such a generic, childish goal,” Lehman said. “ But they don’t know I’m being serious. You don’t go into your career trying to win the Prize, you have to just write the story and let the rest take care of itself. I just hope I can write at that high of a level one day.”

One of his initial goals, though, is to find a job right out of college, preferably in sports.

“I’ve talked to several people, intelligent, hard-working people, who didn’t find jobs until a year after college,” Lehman said. “I’d be truly grateful if I had a job lined up before my final day here at IU.”

Another goal is to cover the Olympics sometime in his career, but to also get out of sports and into the news world later, similarly to his favorite journalist, Mitch Albom, who writes for the Detroit Free Press and writes novels.

“When it comes to journalism, it’s not about the money, but rather experience, travel, learning, and helping others. If I can’t achieve my career goals, I at least know that I did all of those things in my time as a journalist.”

While discussing The Knightly Scroll and how it could continue to grow, Lehman said, “The next step, in my opinion, for The Knightly Scroll to continue toward its full potential is to just make a newspaper course for students to take for credit, something we’ve been trying to get done since I was on the staff, but haven’t had any luck.”

You can check out Lehman’s work on The Knightly Scroll by visiting the “Staff” tab on the website and selecting the 2013-2014 school year, and you can see his work on The Indiana Daily Student by visiting their website at idsnews.com.

“There are so many people I owe my entire career to,” Lehman said. “To say I ‘started’ the newspaper is such an ignorant statement because it was the advisors, Mr. Rickey, Miss Atz, Miss Thangvijit. They deserve the credit for everything The Knightly Scroll stands for. I’ll always be thankful for The Knightly Scroll and everyone involved.”