2018 Fall Semester Reflection
Before taking Writing for Publication I, I knew very little about journalism. I thought that journalism consisted of only news reporting, but I quickly learned that journalism is much more complicated than just news. Journalism is the telling of nonfictional stories that are impacting the lives of people. It is sharing events that the majority of society don’t have the opportunity to attend but effects them. Journalism is incredibly important in today’s world because it is the only thing that is explaining what is going on in a way that people can understand and access the information. This is why it is so important for journalists to be ethical.
Fake news is a serious issue because it destroys the trust between news sources and consumers. The reason why journalism is critical for our communities to have is that it is the only way for people to understand current events. If the news is not factual, then the reader is misled, and once they find out, the reader won’t trust the news source anymore, and the reader will not be able to know the recent events that could impact them.
While working on RubicOnline, Ibid, and The Rubicon, the thing that stayed the most consistent was the connection with the editors. My editors and I collaborated. Instead of the editors having a higher power over me (a staff writer), they were merely sharing their more experienced advice. I learned a lot from my editors including how to approach an article, the different angles you can write with, AP style, and more. Their advice not only made the current article better but made me a better journalist.
The thing that I noticed changed the most between his publications was how much impact the staff writers had on the overall presentation of the article. In Ibid, we completely designed the page, so we got to decide exactly how we wanted to present our writing to the community. In RubicOnline, we designed what and where the visuals were located. In The Rubicon, we had no say on how the article ended up on the page. That is mostly because of the staff writers position on The Rubicon, but I think that it would be a good experience for staff writers to become familiar with how the design of a print newspaper works. Even if we just got to play with the technology used, and nothing was published, I think it would be an excellent experience to have for the future.
I am most proud of my most recent article on immigration in The Rubicon, because of how much time and effort Salah and I put into it. It was always on my mind, and the editors helped so much in making it the best that it could be. It was a unique feeling of pride when I realized that it was the front page of the December issue because I felt that our hard work had paid off. If I could do one thing from the semester again, I would redo my first article on climate change, because I feel that I know more and better understand journalism now then I did when I wrote it. I would do a lot more research and interviews before writing it to create a more rounded article.
2019 Spring Semester Reflection
I came into the spring semester prepared having already completed a semester of Writing for Publications, yet I had no idea how the semester would end. Since I had completed a semester of the class, I understood the amount of work that goes into being a staff writer. I didn’t brainstorm story ideas it was assigned. I didn’t think about how I wanted to write an article until I was told which one to write by an editor. I would then start writing and figuring out how much information I could find online and making meetings for interviews. I never explicitly thought about the angle of the story until I sat down to write the story.
Becoming a co-editor of the news section in May changed a lot for me. The process of applying was exciting to me because it was new to me. I remember getting the email that the editors were posted right before math class. Someone in my publications class, who also happened to be in the same math class as I rushed to our teacher to ask him if we could check the list. Luckily he let us, so we ran to the publications room and seeing my name listed as a news editor was satisfying. I had put so much work into my journalism, and it had paid off. The first thing that changed was my process of creating stories because now I was coming up with ideas that had a high chance of getting published. I started seeing hearing ideas everywhere, especially in conversations with my family. My whole family reads a lot of news, so when conversations would come up, my mind immediately went to if RubicOnline could use it. With as many story ideas that I was coming up with, I quickly had to find an organization system for them. Sno Flow became something that I accessed multiple times a day, and all of the stories that I wrote and edited were added to my Google Calendar.
I felt that the learning curve of transitioning from a staff writer to an editor was predictable. I knew that it was going to be a little more work, but I didn’t wrap my head around how much I would be thinking about it. Writers are what I am usually thinking about because either they are constantly emailing me or they are lost to me because I can’t track them down. Even though I think about journalism a lot, it became a break from my other school work since I enjoy it so much.
Another thing that I didn’t wrap my head around before becoming an editor is news in briefs. They quickly became one of my favorite things because there is a bit of an adrenaline rush with them. There isn’t a timeline that matches up with news in briefs. Either someone tells you that you should write one or you have to know to write one and they have to be published within a couple of hours after the event at most.
The people that supported my the most were other editors and my parents. Over winter break, I was working on an article for the science and tech section of RubicOnline. After I sent the final draft to the editor, she emailed me saying that I would make a great editor. That comment gave me a lot of motivation because it reminded me why I enjoy journalism. Journalism is voluntary work in the sense that you are doing it for others to inform them. Other people who supported me were my parents. They stayed up a little later with me as I worked on an article and they alerted me of important events that could make interesting articles. They understood what I was doing, and they were there for me as I did it.
Overall, this past semester has indeed been successful.
2019 Fall Semester Reflection
During class periods, I am always working. I get to class and immediately pull out my laptop and begin working on whatever story I know needs to be completed first. Whether that is a story I need to publish, edit, or write, I make sure always to use the time available in class. I think that this is the main characteristic of the role I play in the staff dynamic. My priorities as an editor and as a writer come first, and when I have extra time, I’m always available to help someone on staff complete something. There are quite a few people that ask me questions consistently. It started during Writing for Publications last year; people would text me questions about their work, and I would always be willing to help. It has carried into this year as well with staff members and current Writing for Publication students.
My co-editor and I have found a dynamic balance between our work. Most of the time, we both collaborate on editing and publishing stories. It’s based on who sees it in the folder first, or who the writer communicates with first. For social media publishing, I take care of Instagram and Twitter, but sometimes I post on Facebook as well. She is in charge of Snapchat and Facebook, but she’ll post on Instagram if it suits the story. Whenever one of us knows that we need to get something done that we don’t think we have time for, we’ll let the other know so they can complete it if they have more time. Overall, the work balances out quite evenly. My co-editor position has helped me develop better time management skills in publications. It forces me to prioritize what I need to, because a lot of the time, the slightly less critical and quicker tasks get completed when either of us has time. This allows me to not stress out about everything I have to do, because I know that it’s going to get done by someone. I can see how this system could quickly become unbalanced, but we have kept it balanced my acknowledging to each other when we feel like we have taken over.
All of the Writing for Publication students wrote for news this semester, and I recognized before starting the process, how I felt as Writing for Publication student. I remembered how I never felt like I knew what I was doing. I combated this by introducing myself to all of the writers through email to open a path for communication. It made my process editing easier since I knew when I draft was completed, and I hope it made the Staff Writers’ jobs easier by having someone to ask questions to. Most of the time, Staff Writers get my number from someone and text me when they want to write a story, or have a story completed. I am always available to answer questions, and I’ve made that clear to as many people as I can. Staff Writers will ask me questions all of the time, whether in the halls or through text or email. Communication is the number one way that I mentor Staff Writers because I know that when I was a Staff Writer, I just wanted more communication from my editors.
This semester, I had two stories recognized as Best of SNO and one story that was a judge’s selection for the Crown Award. To me, these awards mean that more people are reading my work, which is my ultimate goal. The idea that someone outside of the SPA community read a story that I wrote is inspiring to me. I love writing, so being a part of the Rubicon is a way for me to write and share the stories that are important to my community and me. My goal for the next semester is to have at least one more story recognized as Best of SNO because I want my writing to reach more and more people.
2020 Spring Semester Reflection
This past semester, I learned what it truly meant to be a journalist. While everyone’s lives changed rapidly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and classes adapted to distance learning, the one thing that always seemed natural and routine was journalism. As other classes lost their importance, and I was merely trying to push through, the importance of journalism shone through. As I said to the staff in my Top Editor presentation, it’s an amazing time to be a student journalist.
I’m currently reaching out to other students on staff to continue our reporting on how the world is changing before our eyes throughout the summer. When the staff returns in the fall, no matter where we are and what happens, I want to remember the importance of what we’re doing. The quote said by Philip Graham, “Journalism is the first rough draft of history,” has never felt more real.
In April, I decided to reach out to a person who impacted the state’s decisions on COVID-19. I started with a long shot by reaching out to Michael T. Osterholm, Minnesota’s infectious disease expert, who was too busy to speak with me. I then reached out to John Hick, medical director for disaster preparedness at Hennepin Healthcare, who I had known through the SPA community. Even though his schedule was busy, he was able to answer my questions. I recognized that story as being extremely important for me to write and spend time on. I am proud of the outcome of that story. It helped shaped my views on the virus and my actions against it, and I know and have heard about it doing the same for the people around me and the article’s audience.
I’ve learned from becoming the RubicOnline Director the past month the importance of leading by example. Being the person who actively seeks interesting stories, turns in their stories on time, and is sincerely excited about journalism inspires everyone on the staff to do the same. I think that it happens subconsciously for people. I came into this thinking I would have to tell people to do things actively, and I’m sure there will be times where I do, but for the most part, being the best journalist that I can is invoking a better response from the staff than actually trying to be a boss figure.
Next year, I want to see us creating things that actively bring our audience back to the site. We have beats that come out once a month, but often those beats are so individual from each other that the audience doesn’t recognize that they are recurring things. I would like to see some of those beats turn into series that are identifiable to our audience. For example, my beat this past year was environmental coverage. I want to continue this as a series next year, where I could do continuing coverage and post on social media about this series. In this example, I think people in the SPA community, specifically interested in environmental news, would come to the site to read it. Once those people come to the publication for one reason, they would begin reading other stories and come back the next month for the next edition of the series.
Overall, I’ve learned a lot about myself and what journalism means to me this past semester and year. Despite everything happening in the state and the world, I’m excited to be a journalist and to have a platform to tell our community’s stories.
2020 Fall Semester Reflection
The three adjectives that I would use to describe my work style as a journalist are professional, passionate, and ambitious. Our production manager called my development day presentation professional, and I think that’s an accurate depiction of my work style. I take journalism seriously because I’m passionate about journalism, and I don’t want to stop being a journalist when I graduate high school. I understand that what I do now will better prepare me for my future career. I also think that I am ambitious. I emailed Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and now president-elect Biden’s COVID-19 advisor. I got a response from his assistant, who told me no. I’ve emailed people I know are a long shot at contacting. No matter how many people tell me no, I’m still going to ask for interviews from people who will probably never see the email. One day I might get to email someone that I thought would never happen.
The seniors on staff have also told me that I’m in their top five RubicOnline directors from their time on staff. I think it’s a good depiction of my staff role and that I’m somewhat successful in what I’m trying to do with them. I want to have fun with everyone on staff and be their friend, but I also want to help them be the best staff they can. I want to help them analyze what they are doing and support them as they improve. I would like to see the staff realize that people read their stories because I don’t think that they completely understand that right now. I think they know that some people read their stories. They don’t realize that if we market our work on social media consistently and have interactive aspects and exciting photographs, many more people would read our site. I want people to get excited about their stories and not see it as merely another assignment in distance learning. There’s importance in what we do as student journalists, and I want the staff to use that to our advantage.
The top editors and I have been posting and scheduling a ton on social media. When I’m done writing this reflection, I’m going to schedule posts for the rest of the month because our staff does not consistently post. Many people in the SPA community know that I am the director of RubicOnline, so people come to me when they have questions, they like that we did something, or they’re confused by something that we did. I had a friend ask me why we stopped posting on Instagram because we hadn’t posted enough to show up on people’s feeds. She told me that she read RubicOnline consistently, but she only ever read the stories that we posted about on Instagram and could click on the link in our bio. Most of what has been posted on social media are what the top editors have posted. In the last month and a half that the top editors and I have been posting consistently, we’ve had the highest number of views on our site.
I want to see the staff improve, and I’m going to lead by example. I want to challenge myself to improve my writing skills and finding ways to make “simple” stories more unique. For instance, I don’t necessarily look forward to writing sports stories most of the time because they are usually a little too simple on the surface. I want to find ways to make a regular sports story more intriguing for the readers and me. I will go into every story that I write and ask myself how to make this story the most compelling sports/A&E/news/opinion/feature story that I’ve ever written.
2021 Spring Semester Reflection
RubicOnline pushed me out of my comfort zone the past year. I became comfortable emailing questions to students hoping for interview responses. Once we returned to in-person learning and interviews were more accessible, I reminded myself that my goal is to share the quiet voices. Jumping into the director role this year pushed me far from my comfort zone. I was not used to being at the front of the class. I had to increase my adaptability. I found being a leader is a satisfying responsibility that I’m grateful for. I’m very excited to work with Elle next year as co-directors.
My editors and I pushed a few of my April stories back, and I had three stories accumulate onto the last week of the month. I decided to be creative with my beat topic and focus on interviews for my monthly stories. I was burned out, but I’m proud of how I finished May and June. When I saw the production manager, Elle Chen, taking photos of the celebration for Principal Max Delgado, I asked if I could gather quotes. It’s out of my comfort zone to be in a crowd, and recording interviews makes it a little easier for me.
My process as a journalist includes a lot of research. I always have a brainstorming list for story ideas. I worry about getting a fact wrong. The first thing that I do once I get an assignment is ask myself what I know and what questions I have. I use those notes to fuel Google searches. I open dozens of tabs and copy the URLs onto a document. My next step is to skim through each article and take notes. Most of the time, I print out a huge stack of articles to read through. I take notes of key facts, ideas I have, and people to interview. Once I have the first draft, I ask the editor for thorough feedback, and I like to have one more set of eyes on the story. Chen edits many of my stories, and I do the same for her.
One of my goals for next year is to continue to use journalism as a means to push myself out of my comfort zone. I challenge myself to interview one more person per story. I will also take more than one photo a month. I will use those images to promote my stories on social media. I also want to schedule social media posts each month. I scheduled many out in the first semester, and I want to continue that habit next year. I want to cover a sports game on social media once next year. I will take lots of photos and post them on all platforms. Since most of our followers are on Instagram, we can pull them to Twitter for sports coverage by announcing them on other platforms.
Since I’ve been on staff, we’ve struggled to close the gap between publications. This second semester, we met during a few Flex Days to play games. I hope to continue that next year. Planning regular meetings during X-Period with all staffs would draw us closer and promote more collaboration. Since we have a smaller staff next year, we will have fewer stories published on the site. We will have to collaborate across teams to publish print stories online. It would be beneficial and enjoyable to create a story with all staffs during an X-period. I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on staff stories from staff members and community members. They draw the staff together and connect us to the school community.
2021 Fall Semester Reflection
I’ve learned more this past semester of Rubicon Online than I have any other semester so far. I have had a lot of fun working and brainstorming with my co-Director, Elle Chen, and we are a very efficient team. Elle and I first realized that we worked well together last year when we would both ask each other for advice, second opinions, or edits on our most recent projects. The transition from Director and Production Manager to co-Director was seamless since we had already worked together. I enjoy teaching and mentoring people, so I found transitioning into a team exciting. Once we found our rhythm of co-leading the staff, we were able to add more personality to our leadership style. Elle and I are often texting about the plans for Rubicon Online and hollering in the hallways about who will be in charge of the weekly schedule and who will send the weekly email. We’ve had a lot of fun working with each other, and I’ve enjoyed brainstorming with her. I’ve reached a new level of creativity in how I lead. The challenging part of being in the Director or co-Director position is the work-life balance, or in this case, the school-Rubicon-sports-life balance. I have found it more difficult to maintain the balance in the co-Director position. I’m often worried about if I’m doing enough and if Elle and I’s work is equal. As the semester has progressed, I’ve gotten better about talking to her about my schedule, and we split responsibilities based on what we each have time for. If, for instance, I take on both the plan and the email one weekend, we’ll find another weekend where Elle takes on both.
My job on staff is to lead, a broad job description. While a lot of the work is leading the team from one activity to another during class time, most of the leading happens outside the classroom. During work time in class, it’s common for people to ask questions about doing something on the site or advice on a story. Outside of class, I’m keeping track of who has completed stories, contacting people via email or in-person about their stories, and answering questions or giving advice. We’ve experienced the issue where we have a high quantity of stories, but we don’t have a very high quality of stories. It’s gotten a little bit better over the last month, but Elle and I have sent many emails about updating stories to follow the Rubicon Online guidelines and style. Recently, the most common mistakes have occurred with captioning images and using images that we don’t have permission to use. I’ve had to take down stories for using copyrighted images or materials and then facilitate conversations with writers and editors about following those guidelines.
This next semester, I want to hold more in-class workshops and presentations to improve quality. We didn’t host a Development Day this last semester, so I want to hold one in January. We will also have workshops on refreshing basics such as AP style and copyright. Like I hosted last year, I want to have every top editor present to the class how we can improve based on their department. I then want to open those presentations up to any editor on staff who wants to teach the staff about something we can improve on. I think inter-staff teaching is vital to improving quality. When we’re all in it together and sharing knowledge, people feel pride in publishing a good story, and they’re not just publishing a story because it’s an assignment.
I’m looking forward to this next semester. Our staff is close, so I feel that we will be successful in all the improvements we want to make.
2022 Spring Semester Reflection
I am so grateful for my time with Rubicon. I learned real-world writing, research, and publication skills, as well as how to advocate for myself. I take pride in how the skills that I learned as a student journalist carry me in how I interact with others in the world. It has also influenced how I interact with the SPA community since I’m known by many for my work, especially the adults in the building. I learned how to answer the community’s questions professionally and friendly, even if they didn’t always agree with our decisions. It’s taught me how to ask hard questions, and not be afraid of asking any questions. My nervousness before interviews has subsided, and now I’m excited prior to meet new people for interviews. I hope that those skills carry me into the future and into my next endeavor. While I don’t know what role journalism will play in my future, I know that it will impact my future career. I plan to continue journalism in the form of working on the paper in college to continue building my portfolio, in case I directly use my journalism skills in the future.
For me, the most enriching experience of my time on Rubicon was equally the creativity of brainstorming and solving problems, and the leadership skills that I have developed. I never saw myself that enjoyed getting up in front of a group of people and presenting anything, but Rubicon made it so comfortable for me. It’s reflected in my other classes as well, in how comfortable I am giving presentations, asking questions, or talking in class. It’s also very satisfying to find problems and solve them creatively. Whether someone needs a new story idea, monthly brainstorming, or brainstorming on how to increase social media engagement, I enjoy discovering new ways to solve common or old problems.
To anyone joining Rubicon, embrace the imperfections of your work. You’re not always going to meet deadlines, but don’t be afraid to call yourself out. Advocate for your time. You don’t have to take on every project that’s available to you. If you mess something up on the story, a name, a photo, the way you publish it, learn from it. Ask questions. You don’t have to be a professional journalist when you leave the program, but learn every skill that you can because those skills are beyond useful outside of the publications room. Reach outside of the box. If there’s someone that you want to interview who’s outside of the SPA community, go for it. You never know who’s going to be incredibly excited to answer your questions, or where those connections will lead.