North High student newspaper takes awards

Adam Lidgett

When the Great Neck North High School’s administration asked their student newspaper, the Guide Post, to produce a magazine documenting the school’s history for the district’s 200th anniversary, no one thought the skills the staff learned while making it would earn them journalism awards.

But on March 25 the student staff members of the Guide Post tied for first place for Most Outstanding Newspaper in Adelphi University’s Quill Awards with The Wheatley School’s student newspaper, The Wildcat. The Guide Post also won for Best Layout.

Julia Kaluta, a junior and one of the Guide Post’s features editors, said formatting the magazine forced the staff to think more creatively about newspaper design.

“We had to be more creative and think out of the box,” Kaluta said. “We had to make it more visually pleasing.”

She said the magazine – which has been in the planning for three and a half months and will be available April 21 – made the editors think more creatively about not only the magazine itself, but how they would design their regular issues.

“They were given more freedom, and it made them more creative,” said Jodi Kahn, the Guide Post’s faculty advisor of 10 years. “By doing the magazine it expanded their expertise.”

Kahn said the paper has won various awards at the competition in the past, but never Most Outstanding Newspaper.

Papers from 25 schools from Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties competed in the contest, which required each paper to submit three editions of this year’s paper.

For the 200th anniversary, Kahn said, the school district asked each of the schools in Great Neck to do something representative of their school.

Great Neck North High School’s administration asked the paper to tell the story of the high school, which graduated its first class in 1929.

“We went through every edition of the paper, every yearbook and the [school’s] photo archives,” Kahn said. “We randomly formed groups and every group picked a decade.”

She said the editors and reporters found about 40 alumni through social media who were interviewed for the magazine. Every staff member had to do at least one interview.

Julia Margalit, a junior and another on of the paper’s features editors, said the paper has a very strong a creative team this year, which focused on connecting to their readers and producing relatable content.

Making the paper more relatable included putting more graphics in stories as well as writing piece that would have advice on how to plan the perfect vacation, Kaluta said. She also said their coverage has expanded as well.  Reporters now write stories on national news as well as school sports.

Kaluta said the paper’s editors think about design first, and content second. If the paper is designed well, she said, people will be more likely to pick it up.

“We have very strong writers,” Kaluta said. “But people have to open the paper first.”

The Guide Post, which publishes about eight or nine times a year, has about 35 students on staff, many of whom are editors, but all of whom started as news associates.

Any student can sign up to write these stories, but prospective reporters – many of whom are freshmen – go through a writer’s workshop first with Kahn.

During their 10th, 11th and 12th grade years, Guide Post staff members take a journalism class with Kahn as well.

The class has three levels, starting with writing and ethics basics, moving to graphics and layout in the next year while the final year students focus on projects, which range from team building activities to updating the staff manual.

Margalit said one of the hardest editorial decisions is assigning a story. She said editors from each part of the paper pitch stories on what they want to write about, which are then reviewed during a meeting of the editorial board.

Margalit said she always loved writing, and began writing news stories for her middle school newspaper.

“I remember my first article – I was so nervous and I just wanted everything to be perfect,” Margalit said. “When I saw everyone reading it I enjoyed it.”

Although she doesn’t see herself as being a reporter in the future – she said se doesn’t think she is outgoing enough – Margalit said she would love to lay out magazines as a career.

Kaluta started writing for the paper as a freshman, and loves writing anything.

While she said seeing her work on the printed page is exciting, she said she loves the fact that the paper is more of a family.

“I didn’t expect this to be such a time commitment, but I’m so glad it did – I have nowhere else to go,” Kaluta said. “It was an unexpected happy surprise.”

Kahn said the paper is unusual in that it acts as a small microcosm, where students get to operate their own little business for a while.

“It’s unusual. You bring together a group of kids who may not be friends at first and it turns into a family,” said Kahn, who said this will be her last year advising  the Guide Post staff.

Margalit said she was excited to win, but feels the pressure to win next year with a new staff and Kahn no longer there.

“When you win one time, you want to win again,” Margalit said.

Kaluta said she has “no doubt whatsoever” that the paper will win again.

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