Led by local journalist Siri Chilukuri, four emerging reporters are looking into how South and West Side teens and young adults spend their summers, whether that’s working, having fun or both. They will explore where young people find those opportunities, and what support they receive to thrive.
Check back here to see what we find.
Read some of our previous reporting on young people
Winter 2025: How do Chicago’s young adults find housing and work? What resources do they have — and how can communities support them better?
Who Are We?
City Bureau Civic Reporting Fellows spend 16 weeks improving their journalism skills and immersing themselves in community reporting. (Staff photos by Ariel Cheung/City Bureau; cover photo by Siri Chilukuri/City Bureau)
Hector Cervantes
By Leona Towner
Hector Cervantes is a gif-loving, festival-going community reporter at heart.
Raised in the Chicago suburbs, he moved to the city to attend DePaul University in 2017. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s in journalism. Cervantes is currently a freelance reporter who has been published at Growing Community Media, Cycling Weekly, Restart and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Cervantes came to City Bureau’s Civic Reporting Fellowship with a desire to perfect his craft and spend intentional time developing community-based stories that would be fun and resourceful.
“I just feel like everyone has a story to tell and every person is unique in their own way,” Cervantes said. “I like going to a lot of meetups in general. And Chicago has so many micro-communities … Everyone has a story to tell specific to their community.”
Cervantes has his grandmother's rosary and an innate desire to be known as a good person motivating him to propel his dream of becoming a prolific writer.
The press passes to cover Lollapallooza and Sueños allow him blend his love for festivals with his day job.
Leona Towner
by Hector Cervantes
Leona Towner, a journalist with a background in television news, joined City Bureau’s Civic Reporting Fellowship to reconnect with her roots in print journalism.
Towner grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has always loved writing, starting with journaling as a child and filling every notebook she could find.
"I used to journal all the time because I’ve always been a writer. You know how people ask, ‘What did you do when you were young?’ I used to write in every notebook, take every note. Honestly, I can’t even stop,” Towner said.
In high school, Towner participated in Louder Than a Bomb poetry, where she performed some of her own work. She attended Tennessee State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Media Studies. She later received an Master of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from American University.
Towner began her television journalism career as a guest greeter at Fox News Network in Washington, D.C. She then worked as a multimedia journalist for WZZM-13 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and for WGN-TV as an assignment editor.
She was drawn back to print journalism due to the creativity and depth of the writing process, which she felt was often lost while focusing on broadcast.
“You just have all this great information and imagery, and you have to force it into a 2-minute package. I don’t want to force it anymore — I just want to flesh out the stories,” Towner said.
Robyn Meurkson
by Robert Speed
Robyn Meurkson tells stories that others overlook. They listen in tiny church homes where faith shapes community. They hear voices in protests against gun violence. They sit with people one-on-one, sharing what it means to survive, heal, and keep going.
Meurkson's life has been shaped by experiences living in Oak Park, River Forest, Bolingbrook and Lisle. Her journey also took her to Brooklyn and Los Angeles, each place contributing to her unique perspective.
Her path into journalism began at Roosevelt University, where mentors like John Fountain and Linda Jones encouraged her to explore stories rooted in social justice.
She has written about gun violence, Chicago’s humanitarian issues and community services. She reports for Growing Community Media, focusing on the West Side and suburban communities. She has been a Documenter at City Bureau since 2022, contributed to City Bureau DNC coverage and Blacktivity News, and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
A story Meurkson is especially proud of is a profile of a woman who survived the 2008 Northern Illinois University mass shooting. The piece, produced for a class at Roosevelt, explores trauma and resilience through the experience of someone who lost her best friend and still holds tightly to her faith.
Meurkson is expanding her visual reporting by studying photojournalism, and is working toward a technical communication certification at Illinois Institute of Technology.
No matter where she is reporting from, Meurkson brings patience, persistence and purpose to every story she tells.
“I listen before I write,” she said. “People trust you with their stories. You owe it to them to get it right.”
Robert Speed
by Robyn Meurkson
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, 26-year-old Robert Speed is rooted in resilience, service, and self-determination.
Growing up in Englewood and Bronzeville, Speed’s upbringing was shaped by a strong sense of family and faith. Speed excelled in extracurriculars such as basketball, football and chorus, revealing an early passion for music and expression.
After briefly living in Houston and Philadelphia, Speed returned to Chicago in 2024 with a renewed focus on community empowerment. At the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, he coordinated daily HIV and STI walk-in center operations, which launched his journey in public health.
One of Speed’s proudest achievements in life is simply “still being here,” overcoming depression and systemic obstacles, and embracing life to the fullest.
“I’m a strong advocate for Black youth. I don't want any person of color — any marginalized young person — just to give up. I want them to continue to fight for what's important to them and what's really right,” he said.
As a Civic Reporting fellow, Speed aims to deepen his reporting skills and merge community organizing with impactful media. He envisions creating a community newsroom model, using tools such as podcasts, op-eds and digital content to inform and inspire underserved Black and Brown communities. His life's journey stands as a testament to the power of perseverance, purpose, and the refusal to be underestimated.
Siri Chilukuri
Siri Chilukuri’s journey into journalism started with her first love: science.
She has since focused her work on meaningfully contributing to the larger movement to solve climate change. At age 7, it meant mostly convincing everyone into recycling, but now it means telling the stories of the people causing climate change and the people most impacted by it.
She was most recently a Ben Bagdikian fellow at Mother Jones where she helped fact-check articles for the magazine and website as well as report and write articles.
Previously, she was an environmental justice fellow at Grist, where she wrote stories about coal transition and how a community reckons with legacy pollution. She also wrote about housing, labor, politics, and how all of these forces interact with climate change, and contributed to COP28 coverage.
Siri was a Civic Reporting fellow at City Bureau in 2022. Her team produced a package of stories about labor issues in temp work in manufacturing and warehousing on the South and West Sides.
In addition to her journalism, she volunteers with organizations like AAJA, The Uproot Project and Zenith Cooperative to increase the amount of journalists of color in the industry and help support them along the course of their careers.
(Photo by: Michael Izquierdo)