By Mairin Hoffman ’25 and Matis Molina-Ricard ’24
The Civic Journalism and Media Making class has been booming during this year’s fall trimester. In the Highlander newsroom, students partake in many different endeavors, such as creating articles, videos, and podcasts. The vibrant community while working allows for a high-paced and enjoyable environment where they make time to have fun but always stay professional and progressive. While working on a school newspaper, a specific group in the class has been working on the Washington Eagle, which will serve as the local Washington town newspaper.
This year’s Editors-in-Chief of the Highlander Newspaper are Paige Jackson ‘24, Bridie Bolger ‘24, and Mairin Hoffman ‘25, who are in charge of the newsroom inside and out. Paige and Bridie curate the print edition that is distributed around campus. Mairin runs the Highlander Instagram and YouTube and works alongside Ryan Ryu ‘25 to run the Highlander online edition. The Associate editors for this year are Ryan Ryu and Martha Ewing ‘26, who work in all aspects of the newsroom, including the online edition and the podcast. While Mr. McMann is the faculty advisor, he emphasizes that the newspaper is student-run and that the students have a grasp on the content they are releasing. There are about 14 students in the class, and whether they have a leadership role or not, each student contributes to the paper one way or another.
The students create and draft each article; the topics can vary from world news to FGS news or features. After the article is completed, the editors and associate editors take a look to give suggestions and edits to their peers before going into Mr. McMann’s hands for approval to be uploaded. Mairin and Ryan then upload these articles directly to the online website, which they crafted extensively over the summer months. These articles are also promoted on Instagram, which is student-run. Prefect Jay Lee ‘24 enjoys how the newsroom is unique compared to the average classroom and enjoys the in-class experience, he stated “This class is very different compared to my other classes, there is lots of flexibility, but everyone makes sure to do their work while having fun.”
The newsroom is an environment where students feel like they can express themselves in a student-run environment. Mr. McMann, Director of the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy, feels very passionately about the importance of student and local news. He was a prominent factor in leading the students of the class to re-establish the Washington Eagle, a local newspaper for the town of Washington that was abandoned in the 80s. The Washington Eagle and The Highlander work hand in hand at teaching students true aspects of journalism; “My initial thought was that I wanted to bring the newsroom and the newspaper under the Center for Citizenship and Just Democracy because I’ve always known that local news was in decline, and I had this idea that I wanted to create a local newspaper in town to help engage students with various stakeholders in the town so students could know what it was like living in a small town. I also thought that with The Highlander News, we needed a vibrant school newspaper and a newspaper with more media platforms covered. The newsroom itself is the most real-life work experience that a lot of kids have here, the teamwork required in the newsrooms sets the kids up for success as they will need those skills in their future workplace. Particularly, you don’t always work with like-minded people who have the same energy as you, so a big piece of it is learning how to work with others and lead others.”
Writing Staff ‘23-’24;
Bridie Bolger ‘24
Corbin Carnker ‘25
Ben Davis ‘26
Martha Ewing ‘26
Karl Hammer ‘25
Mairin Hoffman ‘25
Paige Jackson ‘24
Samara Kinyanjui ‘27
Trey LaMay ‘25
Bobby Liberatos ‘24
Matis Molina Ricard ‘24
Daisy Moriarty ‘25
Peter Murphy ‘24
Ryan Ryu ‘25
