It all started three years ago when I took a photography class and realized that it wasn’t what I was interested in. So I switched to the newspaper class taught by Jared Grigsby. I began to take this class to just get my fine arts credit. It ended up meaning way more to me than just a credit. 

Throughout my first year as a rookie, I learned several things about writing, and it helped develop my journalism skills. I also had a good staff to work with and collaborate ideas with when we were writing stories. 

Another thing I learned is how to interview someone. After an event, I would go up and ask a series of questions I had written down and then a series of follow-up questions. This helped me develop better communication skills and get out of my comfort zone as I was entering high school.

I also learned time management skills, as all these stories had a deadline requirement and a timeliness aspect to them. So, I had to get all my questions ready, keep track of key points in the event and then ask my questions. 

After all of this, I brought it all together and formed a story.

Another key aspect I learned through this class was leadership. I was given the role of sports editor for my last two years in the newspaper. Throughout this, I learned how to be a leader and give out stories on a bi-weekly basis. This also helped my communication and management skills. My duties included being the head of the sports stories, assigning them to people to write, and editing them to make sure they were free of error. This was all new to me, so I was kind of nervous when I first started the role. With the help of Grigsby and the support of the staff, my job was very easy, and I was able to do it well. 

My third year was more relaxed because I was familiar with the whole process and was able to turn my stories in on time and still be able to execute my role as sports editor. There were also many perks to this class over the years. I had a class with a great teacher and staff. Also, some of my best friends were on the staff, so it made it fun. It also aligned our other classes too so we had many other classes together because of the newspaper. 

Overall, I am glad I made the decision to switch to this class, and it taught me so many things over the years that I will be able to use in the future. I highly recommend this class to everyone and I also want to thank Grigsby and the rest of the staff for three great years in newspaper.