One story that I am really proud of is my news story where I explain about the fence, and what its purpose is. This was a really difficult story since there was a lot of community complaints about the topic, so it was hard to find a balance between facts and opinions. I interviewed head of school Bryn Roberts and he gave me a lot of good information, but I also got the other side from community members and students about the fence. It went through a lot of editing and drafting cycles but it produced a great story with a cool image so I am proud of that. It was also published in the print edition so that speaks to the quality of the story.  One story that I am impressed with is Rita Li’s opinion story on the thin blue line flag. In brainstorming I told her this was probably the most difficult story that she will write in opinions, but she was ready to face the challenge. It is a very well written story that manages to inform and educate will stating an opinion. It also has a really cool image and Its also cool that it was published in the print edition.

As a senior I try to help people when needed, but I also try to be a fun presence on staff. I am trying to collaborate with everyone on staff, not just seniors and juniors who have been on staff for a while now. As an opinions editor, it is my job to lead editorial discussions, so I try to be knowledgeable and strong while leading those. I like seeing the staff engage in fun challenges together and I would love to see more cross section collaboration, where different sections can try and collaborate on a story centered around a single theme.

In my journalism, I like to tell the stories of the people around me. My favorite section to write in is sports, because it is fun taking pictures at games, but you also get to highlight their accomplishments outside the academic sphere. This is a really fun way of engaging with the community, and I know students always appreciate the great photos that come out of the story. It's cool hearing what people are doing and getting to tell a larger audience what they have accomplished. As an opinions editor, I am the voice between the students and the rubicon, I try to assign opinions stories that are relevant to the SPA community.

Next semester, as an opinions editor I want to increase engagement with the SPA community. I would love to have letters to the editor being submitted, or just touching on topics more closely related to the community. To do this I want to talk more about this opportunity, and provide it as a chance for anyone interested to express their opinion on a certain issue close to them.

I am excited to continue being an opinion editor next semester and to graduate from high school.

Zekiah Juliusson

One story that was a success and a challenge was my story about how campaigning officers used social media. A problem came as there was a miscommunication between me and the editor so I didn’t know it was due until the day before so I had limited time to work. The success came as I got several quotes including a photo gallery with quotes from each candidate with a social media campaign. The editor and Ms. Campbell helped push me to make it an excellent story but I do think it shows the value of communication on staff. 

One area that I would like to spend some more time learning how to do is finding the right angles for sport photography. I feel like as a staff we do a great job of showing up to games, but once we are there we have limited knowledge on how to get unique angles. For every story we have similar sports images so learning what it takes to create a truly amazing sports image, such as angles and editing would be fun and helpful. I also think doing this for every section will help improve the visual quality of our site.

When I created an Infographic I learned about creating my own message through an Image. I had to layer different images and texts to convey a message. I learned how to create something original from my brain to reality. My design process is first deciding what I want the image to tell and then see how that image can be created using editing and photography. While taking photos you are showing the reader what they missed so they can have a visual image before reading the story. You need to capture the moment in a single flash. I found it hard to find sourceable photos but the organization's Instagram feeds are valuable resources. I preferred taking my own images since it conveys my story.

Journalism has helped me build my writing skills, which has helped me in all of my classes. I can now differentiate different writing styles to serve different narratives because writing for different sections taught me those skills. I also recognize a story when I see it now. I like finding the small stories in our communities which I can now recognize. I learned what part of a story to tell and how to form a short piece, into a long and intriguing story that people will want to read. 

This year was a special year for journalism, because flex schedules and covid forced us as a publication to seek new ways to report. Something that has changed, is the ability to do virtual interviews whether it's a zoom call or finding someone at school. Although this made it more challenging to interview people, it also opened up unique opportunities for student journalists. In the spring I did a virtual interview with FDA scientists and directors virtually, and covid allowed for the unique and interesting opportunity.

I am excited to be an opinion editor next year, and have a great senior year.

Zekiah Juliusson.

This semester I got to be a co-editor for the feature section with Liv Larson. This semester we have become good friends and this makes it easier to be editors together. Liv is very good final edits on drafts therefore she does the majority of those when needed, and I do more of the organizational stuff such as Snoflow and social media. This means that we get all the work done while each doing what we prefer and is one of our strong suits. One of our struggles this year has been keeping our section diverse and interesting while learning from home. Without the personal connection to the school community it is harder to find fun new ideas for stories. To solve this challenge I have started taking notes whenever I get a story idea so that in the next cycle if we are struggling to find a story I will have some ideas. 

This year one of the stories that I am most proud of is the Yung Gravy album review about his new album Gasanova. I chose this story because I have been a fan of his for the past year so I was interested in his work already so I was writing about something im interested in. For this story I did a lot of fun background research and interviewed a couple of his fans. It is one of my most creative writings so I am proud of it. One of my favorite stories was in my section by Elle Chen, it was “Life between two worlds: students cozy up to their cultural backgrounds. This story went into depth about the cultural backgrounds of some of the kids at SPA. How they celebrate different holidays and how they get to show their full culture around their families. This story took a lot of background research so I love the story and it shows what a great journalist Elle is. 

Next semester I want to challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone when writing. This semester although I did write for every section I felt like I was writing a lot of similar stories. At the end I challenged myself by writing about politics, a topic I am not familiar with. So looking forward to next semester the first step is giving myself the opportunity to be motivated by the more difficult stories. Then to choose a section I write for less and finally taking the step and picking the more challenging story. Another one of my goals is to interact with the community more hands on. At the end of this semester I had an incident where I did not fully communicate with an interviewee so I want to learn from this. If we stay in hybrid learning I will try my hardest to do interviews during the days that we are in person learning.  

I am excited for a great next semester on staff and to keep producing quality work.

Zekiah Juliusson.

I have realized that being a journalist is not about deadlines but rather a process of being inspired by a story and therefore enjoying writing the story. This semester I have started to give myself time to be inspired so that I can produce my best writing. Another very important thing while writing a story is collaboration and communication. I have embraced  all the help this semester from asking people for ideas of interviews to any extra stories I could do. This meant that I used everyone's best qualities to make my story better.

One of my favorite stories that I did this semester was my feature one about Pah Nah as he cooks pad thai. Although this may not be my best written one it is certainly the one I enjoyed the most. I thought that it was a moment of success as I told a unique story and also helped him get a video of his cooking on a famous chef's social media. If I could go back I would have taken more pictures but also observed all of his techniques for cooking more creating a more full story.

During Rubicon I learn many great writing and storytelling skills. This has helped me in English class as we start to learn creative writing. I have learned how to tell a full story while leaving some parts to the mystery. Another thing that I learned and practiced was my photography skills. I have now started to take photos of nature, my friends and also the George Floyd protests that are happening right now.

I think that if we are stuck learning at home in the summer with asynchronous classes I think that there are some things that could change. One of the things that I think our staff needs to work on is the connectedness of print and online staff. So maybe 1 per week or every other all of the rubicon staff could meet for zoom just so that we all stay connected. My main problem with our online classes was the timing, as each class went until 3:30 I found it hard as I have work most days at 3 so I had to shift my schedule. So next year I would suggest we have class during the school day.
One of my favorite things that we did on staff this year was the birthday celebrations. I thought that they were a very nice touch as everyone's birthday felt special and the staff got a snack to reward our hard work. Another thing that I enjoyed was our section presentations. For A&E our goal was to do more quizzes and I believe we did 2 this year. Although that doesn’t seem like too much it is a start and I hope that next year A&E get to create a major quiz section or culture.

I am excited for the next year where I will be a feature editor with Liv. I think that our staff will have a great year and have lots of fun.

-Zekiah Juliusson

This semester on staff I had a poor diversity for sections I wrote in. Some sections I only wrote in once such as video and news. During the semester I wrote a lot for sports and opinion as I viewed them more as fun stories. My first step is on signup days to take the challenging stories rather than the ones I feel are “easier” or “more fun”. 

This semester I got to be a co-editor for A&E with Lucia Granja. This semester we have become good friends and this makes it easier to be editors together. Lucia is very good at the images of infographics therefore she does the majority of those when needed, and I do more of the organizational stuff such as Snoflow and social media. This means that we get all the work done while each doing what we prefer and is one of our strong suits. One of our challenges is making people turn their stories on time. The majority of our stories are not very time-sensitive so some people do not think that it is necessary to turn in on time. To combat this problem we check-in and remind people every class about their stories in our section. 

At the start of the semester, I was quiet and sort of kept to myself but also talked to Henry Burkhardt as we are good friends. Lucia introduced me to the class and from there I made friends. At the end of the semester, I now know everybody and talk to almost everyone. This means that I am a friendly presence in the staff, I encourage everyone to do their best while still trying to support them. The staff dynamic is really nice, everyone has a small group that they sit with but it doesn’t define who you talk to or be with. Everyone holds themselves to self values meaning that we all get our work done not just for ourselves but also for the other people in the class so their section is good. I hope we continue giving tips and presentations to make everyone better at what we are doing. 

This year I was proud of a number of stories but I was most proud of my multiple wolfpack stories. The first one I wrote one our photo challenge for October of sports galleries. For this game, I went out while it was snowing and captured some captivating images of how tough teams are when they love the sport. This led to me writing about their culture and how it fuels their success. Next, I wrote about the SMB wolfpacks state run which took place in the US bank stadium. I am especially proud of the pictures I took of this game as they show the players in action. I was exceptionally impressed by Lara Cayci as I was on the website and I noticed that she had written 3 news stories in a row. This level of dedication shows how committed she is to her journalism.

Over the course of this semester, I have learned what Journalism truly is. For me Journalism is an expression of your beliefs, you try to communicate those beliefs through your writing. Before this class, I believed that you just had to write what happened but now I know that you have to search through all the evidence and create a new side of the story. I also didn’t know that there were different types of journalism such as Opinion, News and Sports. In journalism, I got to see a different side of people, one that you don’t see from the first glance.

To start coming up with a story, first I look around me to see if anything pops up. Next, I walk around wherever I am to try and see something new. If that fails I will look at events happening near me online and see if those appeal to me. To come up with a good angle, I first have to do some research about them, what they are like, who they are as a person and what other people think of them. This allows my questions to be specific to them as an individual and not as another random person. To stay organized I like to finish my stories a day early in case there are major edits or I missed something. For me leaving something its deadline is too much stress and should be avoided. I also try and keep a copy of all my stories in my personal folder so that I can easily find them in case something happened or I want to read them to inspire me for the next story. This year the hardest part for me was the page design, I had never used the platform so I came into it as something new. I worked through the difficulties and made what I believe is an excellent page that was published. My process for writing and multimedia/online worked very well for me as I never turned something in late and my stories were very well organized.

My work this semester represents who I am as a person and what I can do. For the design page, I worked through the tough areas and figured out how it works and made it easier for myself. For my writing such as the save the environment, not Notre Dame piece reflected something I care about which I turned into a story. I did research and talked to people to gain a more broad view on that issue. Something I would do over is my story about the boy’s Varsity Hockey team, I believe I didn’t dig deep enough into the team and that was a shallow story. If I could do it over I would have more interviews and ask deeper questions that make them think. My piece that I am most proud of is My Cold Kid Walking story and Infographic. On this story, I was given nothing to work with and little professional research but I managed to make a full story that I really like. The infographic I came up with something new that had a joke and bears.

When readers read Arts & Entertainment they are getting a review about a major event near them. It showcases specific people’s achievements. When reading Sports they are reading about a team they care about, the news about that team and something they can talk to their friends about. It is information about something they didn’t know about. When reading Opinion writing, they are forming their own opinions from others. They are learning information so it looks like they are intelligent. They are valuable forms of Journalism because they convey information to the readers that they might not know by themselves. They talk about different things happening in the world that the readers care about. My favorite form of Journalism is opinion writing because it allows me to convey my opinion about something that people care about. They listen to me and my facts so they can convey their own opinion.

When I created an Infographic I learned about creating my own message through an Image. I had to layer different images and texts to convey a message. I learned how to create something original from my brain to reality. While taking photos you are showing the reader what they missed so they can have a visual image before reading the story. You need to capture the moment in a single flash. I found it hard to find sourcable photos but the stars Instagram feeds are valuable recourses. I preferred taking my own images since it conveys my story.

I never knew how much work goes into each article and page. I have no idea how major news sources do it every day when we only do a print edition once a month. Everything has to be done the same and repeated while showing a new story. To produce a publication you need to be organized and have talented staff. Before I thought that the computer would just program it to release but now I understand the level of work needed to make a successful newspaper.

In the month of May, I transitioned from Staff Writer to A&E co-editor. During this transition, I found it hard to understand the complex forms of releasing a story since there were so many small things, but I understand now how to do it. I found it very rewarding to assign stories because people always seemed interested in the ideas.

My co-editor Lucia helped me a lot with the scheduling of releasing stories but I believe that I also helped her. Ms. Campbell also helped me with small questions and small details that I missed.

A story that I edited that I am proud of is the ME! Review by Harper Lux. It was an excellent review with very descriptive words and connected 2 former albums. I also had to find a new photo for the story and I found a excellent live show image of them singing and dancing the song.