A year long English elective offered at WHS is journalism. In the class, students work as a team to make the school newspaper. Through the class, the students learn various skills. When working on their articles, the students have to find the information for their articles. They either have to research the data or communicate with others, which promotes their communication skills. Their grammar and writing skills improve as they write their own articles and proofread the others. Another main skill that develops in this class is InDesign. This program is a layout designer, which the staff uses for the paper.

Tara Smith, a senior, says, “I love journalism because it’s pretty much the only class at Waterford where I feel like I have a community.” The class is very open and allows the students to develop friendships, which sometimes can’t happen in other classes during the lectures. That connection makes an impact on the students’ day. According to the National Research University Higher School of Economics, having friends with you in a class, as long as they are also working, can improve their academic performance.

Future students should pick articles topics that they are interested in, that way they enjoy writing the articles. As Mr. Silverstri, an English teacher here at WHS, said “as a journalist, you can’t just write a piece quickly in one sitting and then publish it. You wouldn’t want something published in the The New York Times that you put 50% effort into. You take a lot of pride in your work and make sure that it’s your best.” The class is a lot of hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun.