Dr. DeNight, sponsor of the Miami High TIMES, is proud to announce this year has been a great year for our high school newspaper.
The new school year began as a clean slate for the Journalism team. “We had to teach the publication process to 19 new students. It takes about two months for new kids to fully learn the process we have to follow in journalism class. But they received a lot of guidance from the 7 veteran journalists taking Journalism II, III, and IV.”
“We’ve had some great leaders this year,” said DeNight. “We have sophomore Angelina Varela, our Editor-in-Chief who earns that role every day because she does the work of five students.” Dr. DeNight also gave a shout-out to senior Keilly Martinez. He said, “It is Keilly’s third year in journalism. I appreciate the quiet leadership she brings to our class.”
Another remarkable achievement from the Miami High TIMES team is the number of highly talented writers on the team. “We’ve had some really great growth from our writers, people like sophomores Katherine Carranza and Jeleanys Oquendo. They started off just learning the process and now they’re class leaders. We’ve also had the addition of two seniors, Rosemary Hernandez and Abigail Giron, that stepped right in to leadership rols because of their outstanding English skills.”
Dr. DeNight is thrilled that this year’s journalism students were able to work together and get the job done, even though it’s a very diverse group of students. The journalism team has also made great use of their color printer the Alumni Association contributed that produces their fabulous posters. Dr. DeNight said, “We applied for a grant for this printer, and Angelina Varela has been a leader who’s shown her classmates how to use it. That knowledge has become so well spread that there’s a lot of kids who can teach others how to make a poster.”
Sophomore Johana Acosta is a very talented layout artist who always makes her posters artistic and creative. Dr. DeNight also mentioned a memorable story Johana wrote which surrounds the famous anime character, Gojo Satoru. This story has earned over 600 views, and continues to attract new readers.
Dr. DeNight would like to give a shout-out to freshman Genesis Hernandez. He said, “She always publishes and keeps up with her deadlines. Her stories also get a lot of attention. She did one on school fighting that was popular.”
Also recognized was senior Alessandro Rodriguez who has written a lot of stories on soccer which is a great interest of his. His stories also get a lot of readers as well. Sophomore Bryan Ayala gets a shout-out because he chooses to write about philosophical issues, and when he publishes them, they get a lot of readers.
Dr. DeNight would also like to shine the spotlight on senior Angel Veliz, who has written some great sports stories. He’s a member of the baseball team and covered their season thoroughly. Senior journalist Joshua Guerrero, who’s also a member of the boys’ basketball team, has provided great coverage of that sport. Finally, he’d like to recognize senior Rosemary Hernandez who is a member of the softball team and also wrote many interesting stories, including one on sports injuries.
DeNight would like to credit Angelina Varela again because she’s showed interest in working in TV production next year, and she expressed the desire, along with TV production teacher Mr. Amaya, to create a collaboration between the Journalism and TV production teams, which he thinks is a nice advancement.
Dr. DeNight mentioned that he participated in an event called “The Great American Teachathon,” where he received about $200 in grant money, which he plans to use to purchase more T-shirts for the newspaper staff. He said, “This year we have two kinds of T-shirts. We have a black one with white printing. That one went to the students who successfully met all the requirements for publication for the first time. We also have this new white long sleeve shirt with blue printing on it, and we gave that to the students who learned how to be an editor and use the online platform to publish their stories. I’ll be collaborating with the editor-in-chief to figure out whether we will print more of those shirts or design something new, so that’s something we’re looking forward to.”
Dr. DeNight is looking forward to the new year. He said, “We’re looking forward to Angelina Varela leading us again as the Editor-in-Chief. I’ll have to do some surveying as the weeks go on, so I know who’s still taking Journalism next year. It always starts with our veterans and our leaders.”
