Journalism students have all the write stuff

While Journalism is a class that puts together The Armijo Signal regularly, students who don’t have room in their schedules or only want to work on certain types of articles have the option to join the Journalism Club. There have been years when no class existed, and the job of putting together the stories for the newspaper have fallen solely on members of the Journalism Club, as well.

The Armijo Signal first became part of the school’s tradition in 1996, when the first issue came out on paper. When students who weren’t in the class wanted to contribute, the Journalism Club was created.

Students learn a lot in both the class and the club, especially learning how to research so that they can complete a story and share the knowledge of what they’ve discovered with others. Another useful skill gained through Journalism is communicating with people, through interviews and sharing.

Student journalists learn a different style of writing, since Journalism is not like writing essays. They learn how to deal with sentence structure and they learn what needs to be included in an article.

Interested journalists get to see a list of stories available for each issue. When stories are ready to be worked with, they are shared on a Google doc with deadline dates. Club members can choose from that list, suggest new ones, or opt not to write for an issue. Those who choose a story from the list are expected to turn them in by the deadline, but if they don’t, the adviser, Ms. Lynne Herring tries to track the member down to encourage him or her to complete the story in time for it to be edited for the assigned publication date.

Instead of officers of a club, the section editors perform specific tasks. This year, several of them are in the Journalism class, but two work on their own time: Melissa Theodorus, who is the School News editor, and Leila Harper, who is in charge of the Beyond the Gates section.

“Before I even came to Armijo, I had already planned on writing for the school’s newspaper because I wanted to try something new,” said Theodorus. “Worried about my first day of high school, I came upon The Armijo Signal and learned more about Armijo and its students. All the student-written stories got me excited for my freshman year and helped me prepare myself for high school. I wanted to write stories that fascinated others and inform them about our school and community. This was also a great way for me to practice writing.

She went on. “I believe writing is one of the most important skills you’ll ever need. Although I’ve never taken a Journalism class, I started out by picking up stories to write. Being in the club lets me write and publish stories that could also spark the interests of future Armijo freshmen.”

Harper had her own reasons for joining the club, after the class failed to exist in her sophomore year. “I love to write, and I thought it would be interesting to write for the paper, so I had it in the back of my mind,” she said. “I can’t remember if I signed up for it, but I was placed in the class (freshman year) and I really enjoyed it. I loved to write articles on book and movie reviews, I even eventually warmed up to writing previews for school events. I met one of my closest friends in that class, and we had a lot of fun together. By the end of the school year, I applied to be an Editor because I thought it would be fun. That summer, I became the Editor for the Beyond the Gates section of the school paper, and I still write for it today. I was sort of thrust into the class, but I couldn’t be happier for the push that got me out there. I decided to stay a part of the club into the next year even after the class was disbanded because I turned out to really enjoy writing for the paper.”

The Journalism Club adviser, Ms. Herring, said, “I would strongly encourage students to join. There is a variety of areas that they can participate, they can enhance their college applications (some schools see participation in Journalism on par with participation as a school or class officer), they can practice skills like talking to adults, they can develop expertise in taking pictures, but most of all, they can have fun.”