Lunchtime becomes a chance for Syracuse Latin School students to pitch stories for the next edition of the “Latin Legend.” The middle schoolers who participate in the recently launched newspaper club report on the latest sports scores, updates on the student council, photos of school activities and even columns focused on history.
Eighth-grader Tess Martin, who serves as editor, said she started as a writer last school year. The club, she said, has grown from half a dozen students to more than 15. She said that with a growing staff and now with three print editions under her, the process runs like a well-oiled machine.
“It’s really important for schools to have newspaper clubs, even for people who may not want to go into journalism as a career,” she believes. “It’s a fun opportunity to meet with people who share your interests and to have a leadership opportunity.”
The group became an officially recognized club in December, after the students’ proposal was approved by the Syracuse City School Board. Club advisor Erica Richards said the efforts to keep it going are completely student driven.
“Students decided to separate themselves into sections,” Richards explained. “So we have a news section. We have a sports section. We have a gossip column, but it's not really gossip; it's more like social things, social events. They do things that readers can participate in like, quizzes, polls, things like that. We have an interview section, and we have our editors.”
Eighth-grader A’Dereon Barnett said it’s entertaining to keep his peers informed.
“I joined Newspaper Club to meet new friends, and [for the chance] to tell stories, information and news to the district,” he said. “And it’s really fun, working with all these people.”
And the club can offer students social support. Eighth-grader Camille O’Dell said she joined to overcome her anxiety.
“I thought that if I joined Newspaper Club, and I started doing interviews, it would help me with that,” she said. “Also, I wanted to be more socially active.”
Final stories are approved by the school principal before being printed as a one-sheet front and back newsletter to distribute. Seventh-grader Betsy Austin said it’s rewarding to see the final product.
“When it comes out, it's just really nice to just see all the hard work that you put in, just laid out into something that people really enjoy,” she said.
According to the2011 Scholastic Journalism Census, 96% of U.S. public high schools provide some type of opportunity to participate in student media, with 64% of American public high schools offering a student newspaper.
An updated census was in the works, but delayed during the COVID pandemic, but data should be analyzed over the summer, according to Candace Bowen, a journalism professor at Kent State and director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism. Bowen said a cursory look at the latest numbers shows, while the number of printed student newspapers are down, online news, other website sources and television are all up, making the expected student media level at or even greater than 2011 figures.
“The Latin Legend’s” editor Martin plans to continue journalism in high school. Her top choice is to attend the media program at the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central.
“I think we're very lucky to have access to the internet, so I want to bring awareness to social issues and also bring news to people who might not have access to it otherwise,” she said of why she values journalism. “Also, it's important for me to be honest with people, because I believe that good journalism is honest, and talks about facts and isn't biased.”
Club advisor Richards said she hopes to see the club continue to grow, especially as current members work to cultivate an inclusive atmosphere.
“Some of the goals that I have for them is for every student to have a voice or feel like they have a voice,” Richards said. “Something really cool that the students decided to do themselves is to never say no to anyone's idea … To give everyone a chance to participate, get some stories presented that are important to the students, not just an exclusive club.”
Richards hopes next to arrange professional journalists to visit the club. And she says students are thinking of fundraising for a field trip to a local media outlet.
