Editors’ Note:
The Underground Workshop’s Sunday Update is a weekly showcase for student journalism, and a weekly opportunity for students to contribute “reporting-based commentary” for publication.
In the past few weeks we’ve published three calls for reporting-based commentary. In the first, we asked students to explore the relationship between social media and social justice. In the second, we asked students to consider the questions their schools will bring to voters on Town Meeting Day. Today we’re calling on Vermont’s student journalists to share about their work. We’re accepting submissions for all three commentaries through mid-March; more information for students is here.
You can reach the UW’s student editors at undergroundworkshop@vtdigger.org, and register for updates to support our mission and get involved.
“Just go for it” : Starting a student newspaper
by Anna Hoppe, Essex High School, and Adelle Macdowell, Middlebury College
Katherine Adams and Madeleine Ahmadi had been working on their story for two months. They finally published it on January 13th.
“I was walking down the hall,” Adams said. “I got the notification on my phone. And I saw that it had been published.”
Their article focused on Essex High School’s Professional Learning Community (PLC) time. Every Wednesday, EHS students are dismissed early so staff can have time to work with their PLCs.
Many students were unaware of what that time was used for, and as Ahmadi and Adams interviewed teachers and surveyed around one hundred more, they learned that many teachers did not think that the time was used as well as it could be.
Ahmadi said she feels “more connected” to the school community through the process of interviewing and writing articles.
Ahmadi started The Hive, EHS’s student newspaper, at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.
“I think that in our society, there’s already minimal opportunity for student voice,” Ahmadi said. “Student journalism provides the opportunity for students to create their own opportunities… and that means that it is unfiltered, unbiased, and very impactful.”
While the site launched in the fall of 2021, Ahmadi started the process a year earlier. She described how getting people “on board” to have a student newspaper was a challenge. In response to their concerns, Ahmadi emphasized that The Hive, which is indirectly taxpayer-funded, is a community news site.
Ahmadi and Adams said that journalism has also helped them grow as individuals.
Ahmadi described how the process has helped her “find the appropriate balance between perseverance and patience” when trying to get interviews.
For one article that Adams wrote about the increase in student vandalism, she interviewed a custodial staff member. Adams learned that she spent almost two hours per day cleaning up vandalism.
“It was honestly just astonishing to me,” Adams said. “And it brought a whole other level of respect for the other staff that we have in our school that we don’t normally think about.”
To students who might want to start a newspaper at their school, Ahmadi had this advice: “Just go for it.”
Reporting-Based Commentary: What Does Student Journalism Look like Around Vermont?
We want to explore what student journalism looks like around the state. If your school has a newspaper that is not listed in our directory below, please let us know!
In this week’s commentary we want to hear from you about journalism in your school and larger community. Is it growing? Does it have a meaningful impact on your community? Why or why not?
Access the current commentary instructions, along with past weeks’, here.
As a part of this process, you may want to explore other schools’ newspapers as well. View them below:
Student Newspaper Directory
High Schools:
Bellows Free Academy, St. Albans: BFA Mercury
Blue Mountain Union School: Buck News Network
Burlington High School: BHS Register
Champlain Valley Union High School: Champlain Valley Chronicle
Essex High School: The Hive
Harwood Union High School: Common Ground
Lake Region Union High School: LR Post
Lamoille Union High School: Paper only
Milton High School: The Blue and Gold
Montpelier High School: Solon Spectrum
Rice Memorial High School: The Knight’s Banner
Springfield High School: Green Horn
Union 32 High School: U-32 Chronicle
Woodstock Union Middle/High School: The Hive
Colleges:
Castleton University: Castleton Spartan
Northern Vermont University: Basement Medicine
University of of Vermont: The Vermont Cynic
Champlain College: Champlain Crossover
St. Michael’s College: The Defender
Middlebury College: The Middlebury Campus
*Teachers: Ask your students to explore the school newspapers above. What stands out? What can we infer from these papers about the purposes of student journalism? Ask students to find a story that seems impactful, in terms of student voice: bringing student perspective to the larger community. Project the stories and ask students to give a tour of the article, reading aloud a favorite paragraph and sharing their throughts.
Meet the Underground Workshop’s Student Editors
We want to begin introducing ourselves, the student editors of the Underground Workshop, to share what makes us passionate about student journalism. Meet three of our student editors below:
Hannah Cunningham, Rice Memorial High School
I am Hannah Cunningham(she/her) and a junior at Rice Memorial High School. I joined the Underground Workshop this fall after noticing the pattern of school construction bond failures and buildings falling apart. Students provide a unique perspective as they work in the schools all day and I wanted to document that. When I am not writing for the Underground Workshop or my school’s newspaper(The Knights Banner) I am skiing the icy slopes of Vermont or getting froyo!
Cooper O’Connell: BFA St. Albans
My name is Cooper O’Connell, I use he/him pronouns, and I am a sophomore at BFA St.Albans. I joined the Underground Workshop after having a teacher recommend it to me. After I participated in my first project with the Underground Workshop, I was hooked. One of the first articles I did for my school paper was an endorsement article for a school board candidate. The article became popular on Facebook, and the person that I endorsed won the open seat. I remember thinking that my article may have influenced who people voted for and how amazing it is that student journalism can affect so many things. Besides journalism, in my free time, I enjoy fishing, antiquing, reading, and skiing.
Cecilia Luce: Thetford Academy
My name is Cecilia Luce (she/her). I am a junior at Thetford Academy, and I joined the Underground Workshop in the fall of 2021. Since then, I have worked on opinion pieces, short articles, and one narrative story. From each of these experiences, I’ve learned a lot about conducting interviews, editing the work of others, and sharpening my writing skills. I hope to pursue journalism in the future, and the Underground Workshop has given me access to opportunities that I wouldn’t have in a standard classroom setting. Working with other student reporters and writers for VTDigger has made for an excellent learning experience.
In my free time, I enjoy skiing, running, musical theatre, and being outdoors as much as possible.
