Drafts. Deadlines. Dig, dig, dig. The words of newspaper journalism advisor Scott Harrison ring in the ears of the Scroll staff as they begin their final writing cycles of the year. Kirana Richmond (12), a third-year journalist, joined journalism in her sophomore year as students came back to in-person school after the pandemic. Since then, she has established herself on staff as a colorful writer within the Arts & Entertainment section. She also serves as the promotions manager and resident artist for The Scroll, creating posters, comics and cartoons for the newspaper.
“My sister was on The Scroll and I know she really enjoyed it … and said really great things about it,” Richmond said. “I signed up for my interview while we were still online, and I heard that my friend Sophia, who’s now Editor-in-Chief, was going to do it too, so I was like ‘okay, if all of these people around me — my friends [and] my sister are doing it — I want to do it too.’”
Ask any member of the staff why they joined, and they may have a multitude of reasons. But ask any member why they stayed, and 9 out of 10 times, it is because of the bonds the class has given them — a fact Evan Easley (11) can attest to. Easley is a second-year journalist on staff and a writer for the News & Features section of the paper. Additionally, he is the head of the copyediting team and has previously worked with the layout team and Viewpoint section.
“Socially, it is just a very welcoming community and even beyond welcoming, we’re all friends,” Easley said. “I’ve met a lot of new people this year and we immediately became friends … It is a bit of a challenge to balance the social life and the workload, but it is definitely possible because a lot of the work is done outside of class.”
Since the average first year staff member has little to no previous journalistic writing experience, half of their first year is dedicated to learning the writing process and Associated Press style that The Scroll adheres to. Jane Mercer (10) is a first-year journalist who has quickly instituted her role on staff. Even though this is her first year, she is the podcasting lead, member of the layout team, a copyeditor and a writer for the News & Features section.
“I’ve always really enjoyed writing; it’s always been a large part of my life,” Mercer said. “I’ve also been told that I’m pretty good at it … I’ve met some staff members who encouraged me to join after they’d seen my writing. [With] News & Features, of course you’re assigned a specific topic, but you can really go in any direction you want and there’s just so much research you can do and that amount of information that you can find really does give you a lot of freedom with writing.”
Although one may compare essay writing to article writing, the two could not be more different. Especially for White Station’s publication, between interviewing, drafting and three rounds of editing, there is an excess of work that goes on behind-the-scenes to put out even a singular article.
“I think that this is a class that is taken very seriously,” Richmond said. “I do not think Mr. Harrison plays around. I want people to know that it’s not easy. It’s a lot of work and a lot of work goes into making one newspaper. It’s important and … a lot of the things we publish are factually correct and approved. We do try our best to be completely unbiased.”
The Scroll is dedicated to publishing timely, accurate and captivating news. In order to do so, each article is carefully curated and edited by numerous members on staff through the extensive multi-step writing process.
“The general process starts with all of the writers submitting their own article ideas,” Easley said. “Then, they are sent to [the Editorial Board], which is basically the leadership positions of The Scroll … [who] decide which article ideas are most newsworthy for our publication. So then, these get distributed back to our team leaders [who] decide ‘I think this person should write this article’ and they give it to us. Then, we first have to write interview questions and we have a certain amount of time to get our interviews in. And then after that we have to do our outline, then our draft and then it’s up to layout and other people to make decisions.”
Though the deadlines and workload may seem daunting to some, many writers agree that the learning experience and opportunities for leadership make the course more than worth it. Even as a first-year journalist, there are a multitude of ways for a writer to expand their roles on staff. For example, they may choose to participate in one of the three special teams: layout, copyediting or social media. As the writers progress through their years on staff, these opportunities only increase and the majority of returning staff members hold some form of responsibility beyond writing for their sections. Mercer, for instance, leads the podcasting team.
“With podcasting, I had no prior experience; I’m kind of just going by the seat of my pants,” Mercer said. “It does take extra time, but the podcast[‘s] focus is just on the students of White Station. The goal of it is to talk about things that are White Station specific because a lot of podcasts are about anything and everything, and I don’t want it to just be this generic podcast where we just talk about the same thing everyone else does.”
The school newspaper class at White Station presents a myriad of opportunities to anyone looking to participate. As a fully student-led, student-powered publication, The Scroll is an environment conducive to steadfast relationships forged through genuine care for the work done.
“Honestly, we all genuinely like each other: we always have fun at our Scroll parties [and] we always have fun on our field trips,” Richmond said. “It’s a really, really, really nice community. I have not been able to say this about any [other] class, sport or team I’ve been on, but everyone genuinely does their best to work with each other, and I think it’s a really great team.”
