My parents went rushing inside my room. The smile on their faces filled me with joy and made me extremely nervous. I saw in the screen of my mom’s computer my article, I really thought they didn’t pay attention to my work in school but seeing my hard work pay off made me realize it was all worth it. In that moment I asked myself, “wouldn’t it be great that the work we do for The Discoverer was also seen by other parents, students and faculty members?” and with that question, I understood that something could be done.

Everyone looks for some kind of approval in life, while it comes in form of a grade or public recognition. Although eleven grade students started to do the projects just as something academic, they also searched for people to see what they all have accomplished in the last year.

TCS juniors had to complete a project for their english class in their last quarter of eleventh grade. The project was intended to make students work on something that in someway promoted The Discoverer, in other words they wanted to expand the school newspaper to a greater audience.

Social Media Accounts:

Some eleven graders decided to create social media accounts as their end of year project for english class. Because of this, the school’s newspaper is now more available for students in different platforms, not just The Discoverer.

“Manuela Gomez and I created the Twitter page. Now that twitter is becoming a huge trend in the High School community, we thought that this might bring the TCS students and their news platform a lot closer.” Amalia Triana, 11th grade student, said.

The new social media presence of the newspaper makes students more connected and informed about what it going on in the school.  

“In the Instagram page we include the featured photo, the title and a small synapsis of the article, this way people will ignore the laziness to read the articles because it is right there on their feed and it is short.” Isabel Arias, 11th grade student, said.

They made it possible to look at The Discoverer via Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook which are used very frequently by teenagers and not only eleven graders, parents and teachers.

Teaching the 4th graders:

On the other hand, some students decided to do the projects in fourth grade. Every year fourth grade teachers assign their kids a project about journalism, this opened up a huge opportunity for juniors to share their knowledge.

“Santiago Garcia, Manuel Jaramillo and I went to fourth grade to teach them about journalism. We expected to get there and for the fourth graders to know nothing but actually when we got there they knew what beats and all of that were.” Simon Escobar, 11th grader, said.

Students organized their schedules with the 4th grade teachers and went to their classes about three or four times. They obviously did not expect the quality of writing to be the same as in eleventh grade but the volunteer students were impressed with the ideas and writing of these ten year olds.

“We were extremely pleased with what we found when we got there and both the students and teachers were extremely welcoming” Escobar said.

Other projects:

Finally, other students decided to find different ways to both explain and promote The Discoverer. Some students made presentations about journalism and what The Discoverer is to 10th graders because they are the ones responsible to cherish it next year.

“We made a video of what is like working in journalism and The Discoverer. We wanted to share our experience with other students because they will pass through this and it is better if they are prepared for what is coming towards them” Juan José Escobar, 11th grade student, said.

Others, made videos for the whole school to see because the goal is for students to know about and explore The Discoverer before they get to their junior year in High School.

“I presented to 10th graders during their english classes because its like passing the legacy to them and the 12th graders never told us anything about what journalism is but I wanted to inform them about their English class journey next year.” Paulina Bernal, 11th grade student, said.

“I really want for the tenth graders to understand and enjoy their next year as juniors in their english class. Also, I wanted them to understand what The Discoverer is so that they can start seeing the articles we have all worked so hard for. I am sure that the other projects will not only teach about the platform but they will, hopefully, make students next year or starting this year to feel that their work is more appreciated and consequently making them happier to write for the school’s newspaper.” Bernal said.