School news

Elmont student newspaper wins top prize

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The Elmont High School student newspaper, the Elmont Phoenix, has been named Long Island’s best high school newspaper by the Press Club of Long Island. Though the awards ceremony is not until June 2, faculty adviser Alexandra Martinez was told about the award in late April by PCLI President Chris R. Vaccaro.

In her first year as the newspaper adviser, Martinez implemented new strategies to better communicate with the students. She set up Gmail accounts for the editors, which allowed them to edit documents in real time with one another in Google Drive. Starting in September, she had one focus for the paper — winning the best newspaper award.

 “I remember saying to everyone at that first meeting, ‘We have won in the past, we will win, we are going to do this,’” she said, referring to winning the award six years ago. “I feel like I willed it into happening.”

Stories in the paper range from coverage of the dissatisfaction with school lunches to reviews of the latest play from the theater department. The 12-page broadsheet covers student life at Elmont High School while also highlighting achievements by students and faculty. Bringing the school’s positive attributes to light is what separates the paper from others, staff members said. It is their belief that highlighting why Elmont is successful is what brought them the top award.

 “Everything on the front page is highlighting Elmont,” said Aniska Coley, a senior editor who is headed to Queens College in the fall. “Everyone can see how good the school is.”

 The staff publishes five issues per year, one every other month. There are six editors and approximately 30 staff members. To become an editor, students must be enrolled in an A.P. English class and submit a writing sample to Martinez.

 In addition to reviews and editorials, there is also a section in the paper that covers community involvement, which has become a point of pride for the staff. Uncovering the culture of the community and engaging people in what Elmont, and Long Island, have to offer is what drew many of the students to the paper.

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