Back to the Beginning
When I got to work designing my story about the new yearbook adviser Frank Webster, I knew I had the chance to do something creative. I wanted to take advantage of how recognizable yearbooks are and design the page around that concept. For the dominant image, I wanted to model a traditional “mugshot” page from […]
Movies take a backseat to safety
I have a distinct memory of the start of our second issue cycle during my freshman year. Shortly after pitch, the EICs challenged the staff to produce more creative page designs for this next issue. As a new staffer who was still learning the basics of story structure, the idea of letting go of the […]
Editing, Leadership and Teambuilding
INTRODUCTION People come first. Not content. Not awards. People. As co-editor-in-chief, I make a point to personally interact with all my staffers. Because every interaction is a chance to build a relationship. And relationships can make or break a person’s experience on staff. My people-first approach is woven into every activity I lead. From giving critique to […]
What’s driving your CO2 emissions?
For our third issue of the 2022-23 school year, my co-EIC and I decided we wanted to have an environmental-themed issue that focused on local climate related news. Our double truck featured a story on carbon footprint and what students are doing to reduce their CO2 emissions. This put me in an opportune position to […]
Looking back on the good old ‘Dazed’
This Dazed and Confused double truck was an initially stressful undertaking because it was a last-minute switch added to the print ladder. The issue, themed around Austin’s past, present and future included stories about city parks, gentrification and the nature of a place so many students call “home.” When I learned that a photojournalism student […]
The High School Experience: Interviews for Jostens Renaissance
Last spring, I worked on a project for Jostens Renaissance – a program that focuses on school culture – that was meant to show the high school experience from students at the beginning and end of their high school career. Even though I was given a list of questions to ask students on my campus, […]
Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi on Asian American representation in sports
When MacJournalism was invited to attend South by Southwest with PBS Student Reporting Labs, we are also informed of interviews that SRL would be conducting that they needed student reporters for. I was chosen to interview Olympic figure skater and children’s literature author Kristi Yamaguchi. For this project, I wrote questions and conducted the interview, […]
A band-aid for a bullet wound
The Uvalde school shooting roughly 160 miles from Austin set the tone for the start of my junior year. McCallum students like me were greeted with a myriad of new regulations intended to improve student safety on campus. While I appreciated the school administration’s proactive approach toward safety, the messaging was lacking. Locking doors, monitoring […]
Outdated Mac should be included in bond proposal
The summer before my junior year, AISD announced a list of campuses set to receive full and partial modernizations. McCallum was not one of them. Built in 1953, we’re the second oldest high school in the district, suffering from recent gas leaks, rain damage and wild animal break-ins. It was the staff’s unanimous agreement for […]
It all matters in the Long run
I originally only took this assignment because Ms. Long had been my freshman Algebra 2 teacher, and I needed to pick up a second writing assignment. That is the honest truth. But during our interview, I learned something I should have already known, that there was more to Ms. Long’s story than I thought. I […]
