The Eagle spotlights regional high school journalism in first-ever round-up
High school journalism students across the Wichita region regularly have the responsibility of covering their schools and communities. They report for student newspapers, broadcast channels, yearbooks and more.
While the pandemic might have created more challenges for these students, they continued to produce stories despite remote learning obstacles and other difficulties.
Students at Andover High School, for example, created a broadcast television episode about the Election last November. At Derby High School, a student interviewed a Sedgwick County Commissioner about women in politics. A student at Wichita North High School spoke with a classmate about the struggles of caring for siblings at home while learning online in the pandemic.
These stories might go untold if it wasn’t for student journalists and their advisers. The Eagle is sharing the work of high school reporters here from across the Wichita region to spotlight their efforts for the broader community. Below you’ll find links to student stories and comments from journalism advisers about their work.
Additionally, I’m able to cover workplace issues and employment for The Eagle because of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Part of my responsibility as a corps member is to mentor young people in the Wichita area and help them grow their journalistic interests. This round-up is part of that effort.
Look for future editions of student journalism round-ups in the coming months. For now, sit back and discover what these young reporters are covering.
Andover High School
Jordan Laub for Trojan TV
Cary Conover, journalism teacher at Andover High School, said:
“The students in the Broadcast Journalism class at Andover High School share a lot of duties, from shooting and editing videos on a variety of topics and live streaming sporting events. Every two weeks we produce an episode of Trojan TV.
“We had done video news updates sporadically over the years, but with our new studio space at the brand new Andover High School we were able to expand and re-brand this aspect of our program and we’ve been able to be a lot more consistent with our production.
“For the election story, we knew it was a hot-button issue and the students wanted to cover it as neutrally as possible. Normally our episodes have a variety of topics but for this one we focused just on the election.”
Alexandria Folger for The Epic yearbook
Caption: “Andover High School freshman basketball player Jackson Peck lies on the court January 15, 2021 after losing to cross-town rival Andover Central High School on a three-point shot at the buzzer. Central was down 54-56 with 4 seconds to go when Central’s Landon Kitterman hit the three pointer to win the game 57-56.”
Augusta High School
Savannah Athy-Sedbrook for Oriole Newspaper and Orioleonline.com
School changes create mixed student emotions
Julie Barker, journalism adviser at Augusta High School, said:
“Savannah had to interview the new principal, which could be an intimidating experience in and of itself, but she was also interviewing him about some of the changes he made that students were not happy with. She took on the task and found answers to student questions.”
Maddie Smart for Oriole Newspaper and Orioleonline.com
Barker said:
“Students know the Paramotor Guy from seeing him in the air, but reporter Maddie stepped outside of the school to talk with Kevin William and learned about his hobby.”
Derby High School
Mya Studyvin for Pantherstale.com
Joanna Chadwick, news publication adviser, said:
“Mya Studyvin is a senior editor in yearbook and newspaper. She’s an excellent leader, writer and photographer. This story was a breaking news story, and I was so impressed with how she jumped on it and wrote an in-depth piece in an hour.”
EllieAna Hale for Pantherstale.com
Women face obstacles en route to positions of power
Chadwick said:
“EllieAna Hale, a newspaper editor, has been a part of the staff for three years. This is a story that Hale worked on while not in newspaper class because she was so passionate about the topic.”
Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School
Haley Cahill for the Paladin newspaper
Photo: OUTTA REACH
Caption: “Early in the first quarter, senior Cale Curtis busts through the Emporia defense for a 15-yard gain on senior night Sept. 17 at Stryker Sports Complex. The play would set up the second of eight touchdowns on the night en route to a 56-13 throttling of the Spartans.”
Jesse Bernal, journalism adviser at Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School, said:
“As our yearbook editor, Haley doesn’t typically take photos, but due to restrictions on student attendance at the games, she was one of the few people who could take pictures. In her first time taking photos for football she had the right placement for this image. It was a game with plenty of opportunities for pictures as the Crusaders scored 8 touchdowns.”
Natalie Phan for the Paladin newspaper
Asian American students share their cultural struggles
Bernal said:
“This article was part of a series we started this year to showcase people of color and other voices that haven’t been typically highlighted in our newspaper. As the coronavirus took a hold of our world Anti-Asian sentiments began to increase. This article provided an opportunity for some of our Asian students to share their struggles and celebrate their culture.”
Maize High School
Rylee Nichols for the Regal Red yearbook
Caption: Junior basketball player Kyle Grill dunked in a game against Newton
Dan Loving, journalism teacher at Maize High School, said:
“It’s an incredible action photo, especially when you consider it is her first year on staff. I was watching a video of the dunk the next day and noticed she was in the corner with her camera ready. I was so happy when she said she got the shot.”
Maize South High School
Bridget Johnson for The Bullseye Online
One Word at a Time - Crafting the Perfect Letter of Recommendation
Spencer O’Daniel, Journalism adviser at Maize South High School and the Maize Career Academy, said:
“This story stands out to me for its deeper storytelling into an important figure within our school that contributes to morale, culture and helping dozens of students each day. This was the first story for this sophomore on staff and actually won a Best of SNO national award for exemplary storytelling and writing. This was one of our staff’s favorite stories told in 2020 and sets a baseline for telling stories ‘beyond the surface’ when writing profiles on our Maize South community.”
Olivia and Lauren Allen for OneMa1ze Broadcasting, Maize Career Academy
Beyond the Classroom - Maize Education Association short documentary
O’Daniel said:
“This is one of the more impactful and emotional videos that our Seamless Productions team has made in the past two years. This sister duo (Olivia and Lauren Allen) set out to tell the story of the key figures and characters behind the scenes that keep our schools running, functional and operating at a high standard during an extremely challenging first semester. They captured the everyday activities of these characters at such a strong level visually, and we received so many compliments from faculty all around our USD 266 district on how much this video impacted their views on these behind-the-scenes heroes.”
Pittsburg High School
Lane Phifer, McKenna Hodges, and Joseph Lee for The Booster Redux
Emily Smith, student publications adviser at Pittsburg High School, said:
“The adoption story was inspired by Adoption Awareness Month and because we have so many members of our school community who are either adopted or have adopted. The students who worked on this wanted to share the stories of families who had experienced the process and what a life-changing event it is.”
McKenna Hodges and Joseph Lee for The Booster Redux
Anonymous Instagram accounts gain popularity
Smith said:
“A national trend on social media has been anonymous accounts to call out individuals. What started as a funny account that focused on our school quickly took a turn when other accounts started popping up and posting allegations about the usage of racially insensitive words. The journalists wanted to discuss the impact of those accounts on students.”
Rose Hill High School
Sydney LaKous for The Rocket Press
Report: Teachers to be in second wave of vaccinations
Matt Browning, journalism adviser at Rose Hill High School, said:
“It isn’t exactly breaking news, but Sydney did a great job of writing a simple news piece. Sydney is such a talented writer for The Rocket Press and she always is ready and willing to take on any story. I’m very proud of her for taking on stories that might not be easy to write.”
Salina Central High School
Hana Rose North for The Pylon
Leaving behind a legacy: Students reminisce over time with Rohrer, who has decided to retire
Darrin Stineman, Pylon adviser, said:
“Mr. Rohrer has been a huge part of our culture for more than 25 years. The story does a good job of showing how he impacted our school and how students feel about losing him.”
Jillian DeVoe for The Pylon
Stineman said:
“It’s not just about the school putting on a show, it shows how successful the show was despite several challenges that were presented.”
Wichita East High School
Daniel Peaden for The Messenger
Video game retailer GameStop experiences historic short squeeze
Austin Clift, newspaper adviser at East High, said:
“Our school was the last of the ‘dinosaurs’ who actually still printed a monthly newsmagazine throughout the school year. Because of this, until this year we didn’t have a website at all. My students struggled with the idea at first, but they have taken to this new digital world of newspaper and are doing a fantastic job. Daniel Peaden in particular has been pumping out some incredible content.”
Wichita North High School
Isabel Paez for the North Star
Learning online while juggling nine
Randy Griffitts, journalism adviser at Noth High, said:
“Isabel was in A.P. Physics with this student during the first 18 weeks and every time she would unmute, everyone could hear the sounds of a lot of children in the background. She has had to find ways to try and balance taking care of her siblings and still be able to be successful in school, especially taking honors and A.P. courses. I thought this article captured a lot of what our students at North are dealing with but at the same time, the spirit of a typical North High student. It might not be nine siblings at home, but a lot of our students are facing many challenges while still trying to be successful at school.”
Wichita Southeast High School
Tammy Nguyen for The Stampede
Nathan Christner, journalism adviser at Southeast High, said:
“There was a lot of information and literally hours’ worth of interviews that were gathered for this story and the reporter did a good job of breaking it all down so it’s easy to process. She spoke with all the major stakeholders and was able to put everything together in a way that covers all the bases without getting overly complicated.”
Savannah Jarman for BTV
Christner said:
“It’s easy to focus on events around the school and lose sight of what’s going on in the community around us. This reporter is very passionate about social justice issues and she took the initiative to enterprise this story to cover a subject many students wouldn’t think to address.”
Wichita West High School
Nayely Marquez, Cadence Cotter and Dalton Stamper for FrontierCast
FrontierCast 2020-21 episode 11 - Thankfulness
Jacob Wilken, journalism adviser at West High, said:
“In this episode, produced when a lot of students and teachers were really at a low point and exhausted from remote education, they focused on thankfulness and positivity, and gave their classmates a platform to give thanks to the people who helped them survive remote education. It was a great episode that I really appreciated as a teacher and their adviser, and I don’t know that I have ever been prouder of a student than I am of Nayely for taking on this challenge of doing a weekly podcast owning it, making it her own and creating something special every week.
