One of Guilderland's priorities is to move students beyond New York State's standards, preparing them not just for the tests they will take in school but also for the real "tests" of life. Here is an example of how the district is accomplishing this priority:

A look at the high school Journal
The story behind the story

Today, approximately 30 students from grades 9-12 are working together after school and during free periods on The Journal. Staffers are responsible for almost every aspect of each issue including: story assignments, scheduling, editing, layout, photos, marketing, and even advertising sales.

Their headlines are timely, and the articles are in-depth and often thought-provoking. Students adhere to the Columbia School of Journalism code of ethics to report accurately, not only on school events and personalities, but also on a wide array of topics pertinent to the community at large. They research, interview, double-check facts, and are as responsible for their own publication as any professional journalist would be.

Learning skills that are not easily tested

The experiences that the students go through while producing a paper provide them with skills that are not easily tested, such as confidence, motivation, professionalism, and the benefits of teamwork to produce a high quality finished product for distribution.

Journal copy editor and staff writer Lauren Branchini, a junior, refers to a recent article she worked on covering the 2002 New York State gubernatorial race. "It helped me to think more critically," she said. Most students, she added, would normally pass by an article on the race with a quick glance at best, but for her, "working at the paper and being more aware of the race has stimulated many conversations" between her and her friends.

Fellow junior Bernie Sonenberg, managing editor for The Journal, says that being a part of the paper has built his confidence and has helped him, "to become more comfortable with approaching other people," as is often necessary to research stories and conduct interviews.

Sonenberg, who also is involved with the design and layout of the paper, adds that staffers work together to "learn by doing and by asking questions of other people." It is not unusual to see one student teaching another, thus contributing to the success of both the individual and the entire team.

Hilary Handin, a junior who has been with The Journal since her freshman year, is the current editor-in-chief. For her personally, the paper "has been a real lifesaver and an anchor" throughout her high school days. It has helped her to develop her time management and organizational skills, which carry through to all of her other classes and activities.

In addition, she has learned "how to feel comfortable approaching and working with people, even difficult ones," she says. "There are many strong personalities on the paper, and they have helped me learn how to be both a mediator and a motivator."

Producing quality year after year

Tom Smith, who has been advising students working on The Journal for the past 27 years, calls the paper "a self-perpetuating workshop for learning." Year after year, staffers are consistently producing a high quality publication that both the school and local community eagerly look forward to reading.

He adds that each year every Journal staff person leaves a unique imprint on the paper - "a legacy," he calls it, that propels the next year’s staff to work even harder and to produce a product that is even better than the last.

Smith also credits district administrators and parents with being continually supportive of the paper and its mission. Their confidence in the staff has been critical to the paper’s success, he notes, and he commends the district for "really allowing the students to be treated as adults." He believes that the journalistic ethics, responsibility and independence that are inherent with being a Journal staff member will help to prepare them for a more successful future.

Guilderland High School graduate Melissa Schwartzberg (1992) seems to be living proof of Smith’s theory. Schwartzberg, an assistant professor of political science at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, was a former Journal staff member.

"My writing skills benefited from my time on The Journal, but perhaps more importantly, I grew in self-confidence, both as a leader and as a potential scholar," Schwartzberg says. "I learned how to challenge a group without intimidation, and how to edit and critique without condescension." She was able to draw upon these skills as the editor-in-chief of her student newspaper at Washington University in St. Louis, and she "continues to do so today as an academic."

Schwartzberg, who graduated earlier this year from New York University with a Ph.D. in politics, remembers how the encouragement of her advisor, Mr. Smith, helped her to "engage in serious deliberations" as she wrote editorials and to ultimately "publish with confidence."

Note: This past October, The Journal was honored at the Empire State School Press Association (ESSPA) convention at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. Last year’s editions won a gold designation, the highest award the association bestows. In addition, more than a dozen other individual and staff awards were presented to Journal staffers.

Keep in touch with Guilderland High School news

Subscribe to The Journal - Receive seven issues delivered anywhere in the country for only $10 per year. Send your name, home phone number, address for delivery and payment to: Guilderland High School, c/o The Journal, 8 School Road, Guilderland Center, N.Y. 12085. Please make checks payable to The Journal.