Leadership and Team Building
On Silver Chips, every incoming staff writer is paired with a senior mentor. When I joined the Silver Chips staff, I was at first intimidated by the 60-person staff and hectic printing cycle that I was suddenly thrown into. Yet, my senior mentor graciously took me under her wing, patiently teaching me how to use InDesign and introducing me to every member of staff. Now, as an editor, I remember how it felt to be a new writer and try to make Silver Chips as welcoming of an environment as possible.
My official titles bring with them many duties and responsibilities. As Op/Ed Editor, I help to select and delegate article topic ideas, edit articles, and communicate with writers to help them during the writing process. As Design Editor, I cohere 60+ writers, artists, and photographers to create aesthetically pleasing pages in time to send to print. Yet, I also make it a priority to ensure that Silver Chips is an enjoyable experience for all.
As Silver Chips serves the largest and most diverse high school in Maryland, I believe it is extremely important to incorporate a diverse range of voices and perspectives in our paper. Our newspaper manifesto mandates that the sourcing of our stories reflect the diversity of our school. For example, as over 75% of our students are minority races, no more than 1/3 of the sources for an article should be white.
My official titles bring with them many duties and responsibilities. As Op/Ed Editor, I help to select and delegate article topic ideas, edit articles, and communicate with writers to help them during the writing process. As Design Editor, I cohere 60+ writers, artists, and photographers to create aesthetically pleasing pages in time to send to print. Yet, I also make it a priority to ensure that Silver Chips is an enjoyable experience for all.
As Silver Chips serves the largest and most diverse high school in Maryland, I believe it is extremely important to incorporate a diverse range of voices and perspectives in our paper. Our newspaper manifesto mandates that the sourcing of our stories reflect the diversity of our school. For example, as over 75% of our students are minority races, no more than 1/3 of the sources for an article should be white.
One of my favorite parts about holding a leadership position on Silver Chips is getting the opportunity to inspire a new generation of journalists.
This year, I filmed a video with my co-Op/Ed Editor about the basics of journalism and, in particular, writing Op/Eds. This video was targeted at middle school-aged students and was sent to a local middle school, where an 8th-grade English class watched it to start learning how to write their own stories. In my video, I covered the fundamentals of Op/Eds, such as the claim, examples, and interviews, while making my explanations easily understandable for younger students. |
In this picture, I am volunteering with fellow staffers at a back-to-school night to distribute papers to incoming Blair families (I am furthest right). I also love distributing Silver Chips at local Silver Spring farmer's markets on the weekends, where I get the opportunity to speak with community members and learn about what they would like to read about in the paper. |
Though we have a 60+ person staff, we manage to be extremely close-knit, largely due to the amount of time we spend together. At the end of each 5-week cycle, Silver Chips has several "late nights" in which staff members stay at school until 9:00 p.m. to finalize pages to send to print. Our staff often goes out for dinner after or during late nights to celebrate our hard work. Now as a senior editor, I look forward to coordinating these dinners. |
My unofficial role on the paper is being a Head of the Spirit Committee. At the end of each five-week newspaper cycle, our staff stays after school until 9 p.m. for several days to finalize the paper for publication. However, no matter how stressful the end of each cycle can get, I believe it is important to ensure that everyone is having fun. As a Head of the Spirit Committee, I organize dress-up themes to keep spirits high, even in high-pressure situations. The photo to the right depicts our "Western" late night dress-up theme. |
Silver Chips is unique in that we are completely independent and self-funded. This means that we can cover the issues we want without prior review from our school administration. However, it also means that we must acquire the money to print each cycle on our own, which can add up to over $1,500 each cycle. As a leader on Silver Chips, I spread the word about and work to help organize fundraising events. One of our traditions is an annual Hibachi silent auction fundraiser. The entire staff pitches in to brainstorm items that can be auctioned off, and we then invite the community to eat dinner and participate in the auction. This silent auction event often accounts for most of our annual revenue; thus, I make sure to post about it on my social media accounts. |