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Sauntering through New York City at midnight after a journalism conference, withstanding an ear bashing from an incensed principal, hosting a weekly radio show, or sitting in the design room in a creative fever putting mind to print with minutes to go: this is The Tower newspaper. With a staff of 70, The Tower has been publishing weekly for 91 years, earning it the title of longest lasting of its kind and honors from the NSPA, CSPA, Quill and Scroll, and others. I was captivated by it.
My first year as a page editor revealed a knack for design that led to senior staff seeking my help. I was exhilarated by a roomful of designers pushing to meet a swiftly approaching deadline, focused on their work, stressed, but feeling the kinship of a shared project. I alone was there for every single issue, with a page every single week. Now I am Supervising Editor at Large, leading the design staff, spearheading new innovations, and reviewing content.
Within this group of motivated individuals, I’ve found a strong sense of community. Our journalism program is a mixing pot of different backgrounds - through it, I’ve been exposed to diverse viewpoints and motivations. I’ve gone thrift shopping with my free-spirited hippie friend, Audrey, who runs our online presence, questioned our local senators with Alyssa, our newsgathering Editor in Chief, and sailed with the adventurous Associate Editor Jack. Most of my time, however, has been spent bonding with the people who look towards me for direction: the staff writers, page editors, and other designers. Not only have I gotten to know these people, but I’ve come to respect them as I lead them towards further successes. One moment we are supporting each other in the design room and the next cheering someone on as they walk up on stage to collect a Gold Crown from the NSPA.
It was a rather random event that led to my inclusion in this amazing program. Unfortunately, I never had access to a journalism program in my elementary or middle school, so I did not sign up for journalism my freshman year; however, my freshman English teacher was an enthusiastic supporter of the Tower, and, luckily, she thought I was the perfect candidate for joining the newspaper. On her recommendation, I joined the Honors Journalism class sophomore year. I instantly enjoyed the inquisitiveness, adventure, and responsibility that was associated with journalism. My first year of journalism was not focused on working with the newspaper, but learning about how to write, interview, and much more. We explored multimedia formats and researched the ethical foundation of journalism and its role in society. At the end of the year, I knew I was going to enjoy writing for the newspaper, but I wasn’t sure how involved I would be. I thought it would just be a fun opportunity to explore the community and write stories. This changed just before the end of the year when the Honors Journalism kids get an opportunity to work on their own issue of the Tower with supervision from the upcoming leadership. Seemingly out of the blue, Edge, our advisor, asked me to take up the role of Page Editor. We had done a little bit of design during the Honors Journalism class and worked with InDesign, but it was still surprising. Thankfully, I took to designing pages like a fish takes to water. I had extensive experience messing around with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator - I actually designed my Middle School yearbook in Photoshop - which gave me tons of advance knowledge. I also was rather skilled with most computer programs. Almost all my knowledge with other Adobe design programs transferred over to working with InDesign, allowing me to teach even the senior designers new skills.
The fulfillment I found designing pages, helping others, writing stories, and investigating the community continued all throughout the junior year. I took a very active role within the program; at many deadlines, I would take up extra work if other Page Editors couldn’t finish or things went wrong. When everyone else except most of the leadership was gone from a deadline, I would still be there helping out. I had the opportunity to write tons of interesting stories and create cool new forms of sharing the news. I went to the MIPA fall conference to bond with my fellow staffers and then New York for NSPA where I honed my skills. The hard work and time was rewarding on so many different levels: I saw a new side of my community and school which is hidden from most people, I met with and talked to a wide range of interesting individuals, I shared important news with the community, I found so many new friends and an engaging new group, and I helped others to become better as they helped me. The time I spent working for journalism here also paid off in another way: I had the chance to become a leader within the program, allowing me to leave a positive lasting impact on the newspaper.
Senior year was that chance as I became the Supervising Editor at Large, leading the same group of editors I used to be a part of. Instantly, I went to work ensuring that our paper was the best it could possibly be. I worked with my fellow leadership to create a new style guide, implemented crucial design changes such as lined up columns, taught all my tricks to the new designers, and helped guide the newspaper in the right direction. It wasn’t always easy, we had our fair share of troubles. I’d like to share an instance of a problem that occurred during a deadline early in the year.
School had just let out and the Monday Deadline for our student newspaper, The Tower, started out like most others. The Page Editors opened InDesign, and the room livened up so I started my rounds - chasing the cries of help or frustration. A few hours later, the Page Editors began to finish up and then things started to go downhill. When leadership tried to reopen the finished pages to check them and turn them into PDFs, we got nothing but errors. There we were at 7 pm with half our pages broken - they’d been worked on for at least several hours now - and people began to freak out. Page Editors were frustrated, leadership was worried we’d be there until midnight, and even our advisor wasn’t fairing well. Instead of letting the stress get to me, I was energized. I called InDesign support and began to check Page Editors’ computers for older versions of the files. While we waited for passwords and usernames to get into the computers, I tried to calm the troops. We got the few pages that were working back on track and let the Page Editors relax. Slowly, we fixed everything up, checked the pages, PDF’d them, and sent them to our printer. Although we left school after 10 pm - a record for our paper - we left in a mood of success and I had a part in that. This is the kind of leadership that I bring to the team, not to mention the design and journalistic skills I try to spread.
The impact of my dedication to this program has reverberated throughout other parts of my life. Tower has expanded my academic horizon beyond what I thought was my natural talent, STEM, inspiring me to take classes like AP Lang, Debate, and even Mythology and motivating my hope to pursue a liberal arts education. Even though I spend my summers in Australia (long story) which prevents me from attending the MIPA summer conference, I still find opportunities to flex my journalistic muscles. During the summer, I have found myself tutoring three girls on a remote cattle station. One of the topics I educated them in was journalism; I even had them interview local farm hands for a mock-story. My top choice college, Princeton University, offers an excellent student newspaper at which I will surely continue my journalistic career if I have the opportunity to attend (I was deferred from early action). Even so, every college I applied to has a student newspaper, thankfully, and due to Tower, I have been listing journalism as one of my top majors. It really stands out against “chemistry” and “mathematics”. I won’t lie and say that I am certain my future is a career as a journalist. I have no set in stone plans yet - it is too early for that - but I know no matter what career I choose, the skills that journalism has taught me will remain relevant. The emphasis on a search for the truth and a responsibility to act ethically will be ingrained in my being for the rest of my life. Even more importantly, the many wonderful people I’ve met and the amazing memories I’ve made thanks to journalism will continue to shape the man I am.