Leadership and team building
In addition to my role on the newspaper staff, I am senior class president and on the student board of delegates for Michigan's association of student councils. I understand the qualities that good leaders possess. I try my best to lead by example in The Tower room and make sure all 90 staffers feel like they are a part of the team.
Managing afterschool deadlines
The Tower is a weekly publication. Editors and staffers work all week long in their respective class, but we all meet and work on the paper together during our after school deadlines. We meet in The Tower room every Friday after school from 3-4:30 p.m. and every Monday after school from 3-finish. I send the final PDFs to the publisher every Monday. Depending on the week, we may end our Monday deadline by 6:45 p.m. or stay until 10:30 p.m.
I work with other editors to remind them of the deadline schedule and coordinate who is bringing dinner or snacks. I also have to ensure all photographers, copy editors, and page editors that need to be at deadline each week show up.
Deadlines bond our staff together more than anything else. They make Tower a family. Each month I curate a new playlist for the staff to enjoy. We keep the energy high at deadline and take breaks each Monday for "family dinner". We sit in the Tower room , put our phones in the center of the table, and just eat and talk about our lives. It is this Tower family that made me fall in love with journalism.
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Leadership dinners
For every five issues we publish, the leadership team celebrates with a group dinner. We vote on a night and venue for our dinner. This year our leadership team consists of 13 staffers. We dress up and carpool to the dinner. It is a nice way to become a closer group outside of the typical school environment. We are able to relax more and become a closer-knit group. In turn, this helps up work better with each other when we are focused on the newspaper.
This year, we have experimented with expanding these dinners. We want to include more staffers, so more people feel involved with The Tower. What I like most about The Tower is that it brings people from all different backgrounds and interests together. Room 144 becomes a melting pot. Each person brings something new to the group, and this diversity of experiences allows each of us to grow as individuals.
Meeting with middle schools
Often times, incoming freshmen aren't aware of our school's strong journalism program. They aren't aware that they have to take a prerequisite class to be a part of the newspaper staff. Because of this, we decided to visit the middle schools in our school district and present to their eighth graders. We made posters and flyers to hand out at their school.
I was able to answer many questions that the students had. Being able to share my passion for journalism was powerful for me. I know I encouraged some students to try something new and scary-- like I did-- and sign up for a journalism class.
Coaching staffers with writing and design
Being the editor in chief, I am seen as a figurehead for the paper. Everything is run by me. I receive many texts each day from staffers asking for help with their story. People cannot find sources, teachers aren't emailing them back, or they don't know what visual should accompany their story. I am always excited to help. Each text is a new challenge for me.
Each week I also sit with all the page editors in my hour and talk them through their planning. I help them figure out what is the most important story on their page, remind them to ask for photographs, and encourage them to try something new with their design. I have learned so much about InDesign and the qualities of good design through this role. I assist the page editors with sketching out their page and answering any questions they might have. During our deadlines I look over their final products and hover around all the editors who are at different levels.
The personal connections that I have with everyone on staff has allowed me to be in this position to help others. I can offer advice truthfully because they already know me as a friend. I love being able to help a newer staffer write a story they are super proud of. I love helping an apathetic page editor fall in love with design. I love to see my fellow staffers succeed.
Meetings with editors
As a leader, I understand how valuable clear communication is. I have made it a mission to make sure to be as upfront and focused as editor in chief this year. Because we print our paper weekly, it is easy to become stagnant and get comfortable running the paper at the same level it always is. I want to force myself and others to always strive for better.
Near the end of first quarter, it was clear that some staffers were running on fumes. Copy editors weren't putting the same time into their corrections. Page editors were turning out the same level of design week after week with the same small mistakes. Leadership was observing from the sidelines without proactively seeking how to improve our publication.
I realized it was my job to reinvigorate the staff. First, I met with my co editor and adviser and we brainstormed ideas to improve the energy and atmosphere of the staff. Then, we held meetings with each group of editors. We sat down and talked about what we saw happening. By reminding them of our goals, we successfully brought everyone on the same page.
Later this year, one of the editors tried to throw a "revolt" against the leadership team. My co editor and I had a personal meeting with her, explaining that her actions had consequences. She was seen as a leader in her class, and by acting out of turn, it made others feel they could do the same. After this explanation, she was much more aware of her actions and the influence she had.
Leading Tower hours
There are three separate hours of classes that Tower kids have. I am in charge of seventh hour. Each day I welcome the class of 30 energetic high schoolers and lead them in our plans for the day. We have to keep class engaging and worthwhile, while still allowing students to get their work done for class. By incorporating interactive mini lessons into the week, students are able to learn new skills and stay focused on journalism. In class, we have story idea pitches, pacemaker newspaper critique presentations, and story signups. These keep students busy in class. I am also able to make personal connections with each staffer in my class. I make a point to check in with everyone each week.
The Tower summer picnic
Over the summer, the other head editors and I met together and planned our annual staff picnic. We organized the food, drinks, and activities for the picnic. Then, we wrote invitations to the staff along with a letter from us. We split the staff into three parts and delivered all the invitations to their houses. We also delivered reporters notebooks to all the first year staffers to encourage their new passion and make them feel important. This took a lot of time and work over the summer, but it allowed us to have an engaged staff coming into the school year. When everyone feels included, they're more likely to work hard for the paper's sake. I loved the picnic because it gave me the chance to reconnect with staffers I hadn't seen over the summer and meet the new, first year staffers and welcome them to The Tower family.
The Tower Facebook groups
With a staff of 90 student journalists, communication is essential-- and also very difficult. For this reason, we use Facebook groups to make announcements to the staff. I have set up two different Facebook groups. One has the entire staff in it. We use this to make announcements about content deadlines, plan staff bonding events, or offer social media opportunities. The second Facebook group consists of our editorial board. I send reminders about upcoming meetings and brainstorm ideas for new editorials. It is necessary for everyone to be on the same page at all times.
The Tower bonding events
The Tower staff has become a second family to me. I am able to meet people I would never had talked to without my Tower connection. To make the staff as close as we are, the editors plan many bonding events. From our Tower honors night to Nerf gun battles at a local indoor soccer field, we always find a way to connect on a personal level.
In the past, we take a group of staffers to the Detroit Auto Show for press day. We are each able to cover the event in a creative way. While the Auto Show is now moved to the summer, we are planning on sending staffers to cover an upcoming presidential rally before the election.
Each year, the editors host the annual Tower holiday party before winter break. We have a family meal, talk to each other, and give each other our "secret Santa" presents. After dinner, the leadership team presents paper plate awards to all 90 staffers. In a staff with so many people, it is easy to feel overlooked, but it is important that everyone feels like a valued member of the team.
Journalism conferences and camps
The Tower staff attends many conferences for journalism. Over the summer, The Tower consistently sends the most students to MIPA's summer workshop. By sending about 30 staffers each year, the workshop is a phenomenal opportunity to get to know each other outside of school. I have attended the camp for three years, and each year I take back something new. When I went the summer before my first year on staff, I was terrified at first. All the other staffers knew each other, so the other sophomores and I kept to ourselves. This past summer, as a senior, I was able to change that atmosphere. I made a group chat with everyone from Grosse Pointe South and made plans each night to bond as a staff. I played cards with the first year staffers and put all the tables together during meals, so no one felt left out. These events give us the opportunity to make real, lasting connections with our peers.
This past summer, three editors and I completely redesigned our paper. We brought a new nameplate, flags, and templates to our staff. We took our ideas to one of the on-site critiques at MIPA camp. The adviser was honest about some of the things she didn't like. While it initially hurt to see our hard work get criticized, I understand how valuable the critique was in hindsight.
I continue to encourage other staffers to attend MIPA's summer and fall conferences-- regardless of what position they have-- because everyone can take something out of each lesson. I am the journalist that I am today because of my time at journalism conferences.
