Pelham Examiner editor Oliver Tam picked to represent New York State at national journalism conference

Oliver Tam, assistant managing editor of the Pelham Examiner, since July 2020.

Oliver Tam, assistant managing editor of the Pelham Examiner, has been selected to represent New York State at the 2021 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference in June.

The convention, which usually pays to bring one student from each state to Washington, D.C., will be held online because of the pandemic.

“The annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference program targets rising high school seniors who are interested in pursuing a career in journalism and who demonstrate qualities of ‘free spirit,'” according to the website of the Freedom Forum Institute. “Students will participate in a virtual conference June 21-24 and are awarded a $1,000 college scholarship. This Freedom Forum Institute program was established in 1999 to honor Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, Newseum and the Freedom Forum.”

Leading journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winners and network news hosts, have spoken to attendees at past conferences.

Tam is a junior at Pelham Memorial High School and has worked on the Examiner since August 2019. In July, he will become executive editor, the paper’s top position.

Tam is a participant in both the Sock ‘n’ Buskin school theater program and community theater and is part of the PMHS Student Association for his class. He also is a member of the AcaPelicans, an acapella group in the school, and has won awards in competitions as part of the PMHS forensics speech team.

This is the second time in the Examiner’s three-year history one of its editors has been chosen as New York State’s delegate to the Neuharth conference. Charlotte Howard, a PMHS 202o graduate and executive editor during the paper’s previous publishing year, represented the state in 2019.

Read Tam’s Pelham Examiner staff profile here.