As the first year of Tiger Daily, OA’s student-led newspaper, wraps up, the first generation staff reflect on how the overall experience went.
The first year was a huge learning process for the whole team. Quinn Mooers and Nick Hall sum the first year up in one word.
“Challenging because you learn how to do a lot of things you didn’t know how to do before and you learn new skills. It can be hard at first but you learn how to work with it,” Quinn said.
“The year could be described as very interesting. It was a fun time and there were some challenging times, but it was a really good experience,” said Nick.
With this being the debut year for Tiger Daily, there were many challenges. Nick Polous and Kate Vo recall these challenges.
“The hardest part was adjusting to something that was new, that I never really done before, and learning how to write journalism stories in the proper way,” Nick said.
“The hardest part is being able to tell the difference between an actual essay and writing for the newspaper. I remember I was struggling so hard and Schussler was sitting there and telling me ‘stop writing like an essay’,” Kate said.
As the first year had some problems, Editor in Chief Ryann MacKinlay wants to improve the processes for next year.
“I feel like I went into this thinking that it was going to be a more management type position and I feel like there were some fuzzy boundaries, at times, with what I was supposed to be producing and what I was supposed to be editing,” Ryann said. “I would rather just know what to do clearly every week.”
When having problems, there also comes fun and memories. Matthew Male and Jayden Thibeault share their favorite stories they wrote throughout the first year.
“My favorite story would have to be one of the profiles on sports because it’s been my dream to be a sports writer for the past four or five years,” Jayden said. “It’s cool to take a class that will prepare me for my career.”
“I really liked writing the Ms. Holbrook profile because me and her have a really close relationship,” Matthew said. “She is one of my favorite teachers, so it was easy to write it and the interview was really fun.”
With all the fun, all of the staff members had space to grow. Sadie Gilson shared the ways she got to grow in this class.
“I started off as part of the promo team, with Lauren, doing social media,” Sadie said “After Mid-Years, I took the role of the photo editor and I learned about new software and everything like that. I am really proud of myself for knowing how to do the photos and making the site look better. I am really thankful for that.”
Tiger Daily was much more than writing, but also about making memories. Lauren Daigle and Matt Driscoll look back on the fun they had in Journalism.
“My favorite memory would be meeting everyone here because they are all kind and supportive,” Matt said.
“There wasn’t just one moment that was fun,” Lauren said. “I feel like it was all fun and being able to walk around the school and interview people in class was really fun.”
As the year comes to a close, Tiger Daily was started to create a fun and new way to share written news and media. Gabby Russo reflects on the creation of the class as a whole.
“I think all of us made an impact this year because we are the first round of kids to start Tiger Daily and we kind of paved the way for the next classes to come,” Gabby said.
