By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer
Southborough – A Southborough second-grader had the experience of a lifetime May 15 when she met Mass. Governor Charles Baker at the Statehouse. Shayna Rose, 8, a student at Albert S. Woodward Memorial Elementary School, had arranged to interview the governor for the school newspaper which she created several months ago.
“She has been interviewing policemen and teachers and firefighters and it has been great,” explained her father Chris Rose. “After a lot of work she got an interview with Gov. Baker.”
Shayna and her family arrived for her interview just as the news of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence verdict was announced.
“Baker had to schedule an immediate press conference and it seemed like our interview would be cancelled,” Chris Rose said. “Instead my daughter was brought up to the front of the press conference with all the other media and then brought in for a private interview with him in his office.”
“As we waited for the governor to come out to meet us I could see something BIG was happening,” Shayna wrote in her newspaper. “Security and camera people and people with microphones were running all around us . We went past cameramen and past reporters and right up front!! The governor spoke wonderfully and cared so much about the people who were hurt by the bombs!”
After the press conference, Shayna was ushered into the governor’s office for a private interview. She asked a handful of questions, such as what he does when he’s not being governor, what he would do if he were not governor, and his favorite book and movie.
When asked what his favorite dessert is, Baker responded: “A hot fudge brownie sundae and my favorite lunch is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!!”
As an added bonus, Shayna was invited to interview television reporter Janet Wu.
“Janet was wonderful and spent about 10 minutes letting my daughter interview her,” Chris said.
When asked her impressions of her experience, Shayna said, “The Statehouse was very big and the governor was very tall.”
Shayna’s interest in starting the “Woodward Weekly” began during recess. While recess is most students’ favorite part of the school day, Shayna “dreaded it.”
“I started writing a lot,” she said.
While she doesn’t want to be a journalist when she grows up – she wants to be a hedge fund manager – “I like doing [the newspaper] because there are people to meet, places to go and things to do.”
She hopes to start a blog next year and said the people she would most like to interview are Tom Brady and Taylor Swift.
Until then, Shayna is enjoying her moment in the spotlight with the governor.
“I expected it to be a once in a lifetime experience but what happened was more than I ever could have expected in my wildest dreams,” she said.