Students Reimagine the School Newspaper
At the end of the 2018-2019 school year, faculty member Nick Church approached Kylee M. ’20 with an idea, why not start a Club and bring back the School’s newspaper? “I was pretty shocked,” the now senior said, “to discover we didn’t already have a newspaper” (in fact, the School previously had a student paper and later a digital version, but had been dormant for several years). Feeling a student paper was an essential part of the high school experience, Kylee jumped at the opportunity to “help document everything going on throughout the school and our community.”
Where Do Students Get Their News(paper)?
Trends for student papers across the nation echo trends seen in the press as a whole. Printed student papers are more and more infrequent as students (and schools) have gone to online publishing to both combat the costs of printing and to attract student readers. Many high school students did not grow up in homes with a daily paper – and thereby do not turn to newspapers for information. Kylee, co-editor Emma L. ’20 and the student writers are looking to buck the trend.
“I felt very passionate about starting the newspaper because I was going to be able to help create a lasting piece for the Winchendon School,” Kylee, now an editor of the Wapiti Weekly continued. Currently, the student-driven club meets once a week. The aim of the paper dovetails well with the School’s mission and values of teaching critical thinking, communication, and creativity within an environment designed for students to reach their potential. At the Wapiti Weekly, students are creating and disseminating their own news meant for public reading.
Kylee says she doesn’t plan on pursuing journalism as a career but was more interested in providing a source of news and pride for the student body. 
The first issue of the Wapiti Weekly can be found online.
