What motivated you to join the journalism club back in your freshman year?
I remember a lot of people were interested in journalism freshman year. It was probably one of the most popular clubs for the first two weeks or so, and leadership applications went in, I happened to get a leadership role, and so a lot of people bailed on the club, but the leadership team stayed. So I guess we sort of had that responsibility, and after we stuck it out for the first few weeks, realizing it wasn’t all fun and games, it was also hard work, we really bonded as a family, and I started seeing the fun in journalism as well.
Could you describe the process of how the club ran back in the first year and how it compares to how you’ve seen the class evolve?
I think most of the stories we wrote that year went in our print issue because it was our first one, and we didn’t write a lot of stories that year because we were learning. Then the next year onwards we became more of a production class, and from junior year onwards we’ve been kind of the same, just working and putting out a quality journalism product.
Could you talk about the relationship that you were able to form with Ms. Rapp and what she’s meant to you as a mentor and teacher?
I’ve had Ms. Rapp for a total of six years by my count, with two of English and four of journalism. She’s helped me grow tremendously as a writer. I remember my first essay freshman year wasn’t the greatest, but by the time I was finished with her class junior year, essays were something that I enjoyed doing because I enjoyed the content of her classes. I love writing stories for journalism now, and I think my writing skills are something I will always credit to her as are my skills with communication.
What is your favorite memory from each year, or if you don’t want to break it down by year, what are some of your favorite memories?
I have an award from freshman year for ‘The Most Rides Given to Those In Need’ because we stayed after school, and I gave a lot of people rides home. Ironically, I ended up giving half the kids rides home that same night after the awards. That has always been something that was funny to me because I look at that award, and I think what did I actually do, that was my parents. It was a fun time looking back on it.
Do you envision yourself continuing to do newspaper after high school either in college or somehow involved in your career?
My career choice is the first way I will be practicing journalism somewhat, because I will be going into physics, but more specifically academia, which means writing in journals and writing research papers and writing a 100-page thesis at some point. So, I think I will carry my skills from journalism in that. I don’t know if I will be going into journalism at the college level freshman year, but I may look into it when I’m more solid about what my other time commitments are.
What will you miss the most about the Portola Pilot?
I think I will miss being in the classroom and all the fun we’ve had in there with all the people. When I walk in that classroom, I know I’m there with a bunch of my friends who are all crazy about journalism and a wonderful teacher in Ms. Rapp who is also crazy about journalism. We’re all working on something, we have that common goal, but at the same time we all have that same crazy sense of humor and all these inside jokes and all this enjoyment that comes from working towards the common goal but also just having fun every step of the way.