Helen Hertz ‘24: An Aspiring Journalist and a Traveler

By Hania Raza 

​With a passion and interest in journalism and traveling, Helen Hertz ‘24 has been trying to visit every state in America ever since she was 8 years old.

She has already visited 44 states with her family and is trying to travel to every state before she graduates high school. Over the summer, Hertz visited the New England area and only has six more states left to cross off of her list: Hawaii, Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Utah, and Louisiana. 

Recalling one of her first visits, she fondly remembered “When I was 8 years old we took a long cross country trip to Nebraska to see some family,” Hertz said, “and we’ve been crossing off states ever since.” 

So far she has been to all of the states in New England, visited most of the states on the West Coast, and can cross off the Midwest. 

For someone who has visited so many sites and locations, there has to be a favorite. 

“My favorite place is probably in Washington, since we go there every year, and I'm so familiar with the area,” Hertz said. “My favorite memory is just hanging out in new places with my cousins and sisters.” 

Over the summer, Hertz traveled with Kaeleigh Howlett ‘24, one of her close friends, to North Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina. 

“A funny story from the trip was that Helen talked in a high pitched voice for two hours from Charleston back to Myrtle Beach,” Howlett said. “Also, she bought glue-on nails and tried to put them on me, but I took them off in 30 minutes.” 

She traveled outside of the country, to a poor and underdeveloped part of Haiti.

“When I was 12, I went to Haiti for a mission trip,” Hertz said. “My old church had a school there that they worked on.” 

When she gets older, Hertz wants to visit many other countries to continue her travels and tours around the world because she enjoys traveling. Next year, some students from North Cross will be going on a trip to France during the summer, where, over the course of a week, they will visit many famous cities and sites. 

“I’m starting with the French trip I'm taking next summer,” Hertz said, “and sort of extending off of that.” 

Along with her interest in travel and tourism, Hertz has a passion for journalism. 

“I like to write, I like to read, I like to travel,” Hertz said, “I like to try new things.” 

She has been taking journalism since her freshman year, but had developed her interest for it during middle school. 

“In middle school we had a little news thing that I would write for sometimes, for fun.” 

Hertz believes that a true journalist can make a positive change in social values and norms and can help bring a difference in society. 
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“Journalism plays every part in society, separating fake news and fake media, and it just delivers,” Hertz said. “That's the perfect way to get information when you need to.”