Being on the Newspaper Staff - One Reporter's Perspective

by Sloane H. 

The Yankton School System has a good way of providing students with quality clubs, programs, and extra classes. One of which includes the YMS Newspaper class. My experience was definitely a fun one, with meeting new friends, exploring new topics, and improving my public writing skills. It truly has been a fun roller coaster of unique stories from all points of view.

Since joining in my sixth-grade year, every month has been a different experience. It's like everything is planned out, yet exact opposites, all at the same time, every time. Most are about topics that you can pick, so it's not exactly like homework you don't want to do. The one thing you can’t pick, is that everything you write about has to be related to either YMS, stuff happening in Yankton, or things around South Dakota.

Making friends has never been easier this way. Picture this: You're able to partner up with anyone who's willing to be in the Newspaper community. If you want to do a solo project, you can still make friends that way. For example, every month there are work days to visit Mrs. Andrews’ room to work on assignments for Newspaper, most people go to those. You can make contact on similar topics, and have deep connections even in different grades.

To add to this, Newspaper has improved my day to day life in a lot of ways. It has me double check on what I'm writing and fix mistakes when writing it. I feel free when typing whatever comes to mind, but it's alright to write things down on paper first. Having a rough draft for informational topics is a clever way to redraft my work and make it the best it can be to post to the public. All of these have led me to understand story structure and opinion writing better.

In conclusion, the experience is very fun and helps you in countless ways. This very article would have been very different if not for the stuff you can learn at YMS Newspaper. Every memory made, from attending meetings, to publishing projects, will be remembered and loved. Even if it has to end in a couple months from now, if sure has been fun, can't wait to get to work on more articles soon!