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By Aaron Miller, Newspaper In Education student columnist / Published: March 21, 2018
SUBMITTED PHOTO Aaron Miller, Newspaper In Education student columnist, is a senior at Greater Nanticoke Area High School.
The 2017-18 school year marked the beginning of a new era for The GNA Insider, the student newspaper at Greater Nanticoke Area High School. For many years, the paper had been published as a quarterly account of life at GNA, ranging from sporting events, award ceremonies and other honorable distinctions. The creativity of the journalists was limited by the printing costs and time restraints of the school day. On top of that, each paper had a given limit of 30 to 35 pages, so when it came time for printing, a lot of great ideas had to be cut to fit in our given restrictions.
Prior to my senior year, I had discussed transitioning our newspaper from solely a traditional one to an online paper with Sean Carey, our journalism adviser. Our dream and expectations of how the finished product would transpire were extremely high, leading us to be reluctant in finally suggesting the idea to the administration of our school. That all changed two weeks prior to the first day of my senior year when my adviser had messaged me saying that we were approved for our website and would begin working on it the very first day of school.
With the support of Dr. Grevera, the district's superintendent, we received the funding and began working with the program used by many distinguished schools and organizations, including: American University, New York University, Emerson College, Misericordia University, Wilkes University, Marywood University, University of Pittsburgh, and many, many more. The program is School Newspapers Online Sites (SNO), a subset of Wordpress. The features provided by the site allow our journalists to bring up-to-date information to all GNA students, faculty, staff and community members alike within a variety of mediums in real-time.
Our newspaper has multiple sections that help organize all of our articles and reporting. The most viewed sections include: sports, campus life, alumni, and multimedia. Sports is the most developed of the four because of the student body's enthusiasm at all sporting events. Campus life incorporates everything that happens on campus, including teacher profiles and college advisement updates. Our Alumni section is devoted to former students and also includes a "Where Are They Now?" section, which recounts the accomplishments and goals achieved by individual alumni of the district. This section was even featured in an issue of The Citizens' Voice last year. Finally, our multimedia category attracts the most viewers because of the vast selection of photos. The various sections of our newspaper allow for current and future students alike to gain access to the happenings of GNA.
Our main priority here at The GNA Insider is to keep readers current with the affairs of the school and surrounding area, and now we can successfully achieve that. Without the help of entire 2017-18 Journalism Class, none of this would be possible. Student journalists include: Seniors — Eric Jeffries, Dawson Hughes, Derek Kurkoski, Taylor Zabrenski, Mark Walters, Destiny Geahr, Aaron Miller: Juniors — Nate Kreitzer, Brianna Stritzinger, Harley LaRue, EJ Gill, Liam Carcieri, Elias Miller, Madelyn Bugdonovitch, Haileigh Hendricks, Allison Williams, and Sophomore, Kimberly Smith.
To expand our horizons, we have recently begun to venture out into the social media realm. Twitter, along with Facebook and Snapchat, allow our writers to receive feedback. It also expands our typical viewership from just people in the district to parents and community members interested in what their children and teachers have accomplished.
My senior year of high school has been lighted with the success of a dream becoming reality and building a foundation for something even greater. Even though I am graduating in a few short months, I plan to continue my commitment to The GNA Insider, no matter where my future endeavors lead me. I will always be grateful for the opportunity my school and adviser provided me, and I know the same goes for them. Writing is my passion and helping pour the cement for something that will last a lifetime is mesmerizing. The experience I obtained from this project encouraged me to apply to Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, the number one rated journalism school in the country. I was recently accepted with one of the college's most prestigious merit awards and will be fully committing soon. This transition from a traditional paper not only was a great way to bring our school into the 21st century, but it was also a way to gain exposure to the real world of journalism and will provide a stepping stone into my future career.
Yet, I am only one piece to the puzzle. There have been leaders before me and there will be leaders after me, but if I make only the slightest impact upon the way things are executed, I consider my work as an accomplishment. With our step into the future of reporting, the sky's the limit to the possibilities of what future students can do. I hope future students can take the advice of their teachers and strive for greatness, because it has been proven by this year's success that anything is possible.
Visit us at thegnainsider.com!
Aaron Miller is a senior at Greater Nanticoke Area High School. Student columns are published Wednesdays during the school year.