On top of helping me find my place at LSHS, being in journalism has given me a glimpse of the passion and hard work that other students put forth towards their classes. As the editor-in-chief in period 4 Journalism, I got the opportunity to read everyone’s work and watch as they made changes and grow as journalists in real-time.
One article that stood out to me in our first cycle was Daniel Sanchez’s “Artificial intelligence kills students’ ability to learn.” The use of AI in schools is a topic that I feel very strongly about. Because it is such an important and relevant subject, I am glad he took the time to cover it. Even though external research wasn’t required, he linked multiple outside sources to add more context and important information to the article, educating students as they read. His article provides a thorough coverage of AI use in schools, from MIT research to LSHS’s own student handbook, with a tone of professionalism I was surprised to get from an article written during the first cycle.
Seniors Alyssa Anderson and Emerson Cummins have consistently shown the meaning of “nådeløse,” with a majority of their sports articles being football game coverage. The two watched the games live, both in-person and through livestream, taking notes and putting together articles on the games in mere days. They are both fast and talented journalists. Their writing style is engaging and keeps readers hooked from paragraph to paragraph, through all three of their articles. All of their selected quotes provide unique insight from the students about the sport they love. I congratulate them for going above and beyond with their articles and work.
Other articles that stood out to me are “DECA competitors prepare for the first big competitive event” by Madison Matherly and “Respect the student section seniority” by Aubrey Scollard-Mason. I enjoy that Matherly’s included so much information on DECA and the immersive introduction in Scollard-Mason‘s article.
Even though I didn’t mention every student by name, all of my fellow staff members have consistently worked their hardest and put together articles worth reading by our peers at LSHS.
I would also like to thank the photographers, Josh Anderson, Oliver Paisley, Zoe Rodgers and Maverick Elich, for stepping up and taking photos for articles posted during our second cycle.
While not my class, I did read many of the articles written by students in the third period journalism class. The following are some of my favorites:
- “Fitted Fridays: Lake Stevens’ new favorite way to show their spirit” by Macrae Breen and Kaiden Peck.
- “Mental health negatively impacts the student body” by Rebecca Honeycutt.
- “The effects of short-form videos on students at Lake Stevens High School” by Felix Ouch and Booker Katzer.
- “Interest in Ukraine vs. Russia War wanes” by Dmytro Grytskanyuk and Nayan Mahler.
I am not only proud of the work I’ve done, but also my classmates and fellow staff members. I can’t wait to see what everyone at The Valhalla publishes next semester, and from there on out as long as I’m around to read the best newspaper at LSHS.
