Every student at Elder knows what The Purple Quill is about. Given out at the end of every month, The Purple Quill provides Elder news and other features, all written by journalism students. The Quill gives students the benefit of learning about classmates, teachers, and about Elder. The school paper is just one of many reasons why Elder is truly a unique place.

Journalism is one of many unique electives provided by Elder. Journalism, which is an ACP level class, is only every offered during seventh period. However, journalism teacher Mr. Rogers can allow students to take the class during the day, if you have a study hall. The class is offered to sophomores, juniors, and seniors only.

The class itself is very cool. You can write about anything that you would like. Politics, sports, news, entertainment are all things that staff members write about. Stories are featured both in the paper edition and the online edition. Journalism is not just about articles either. Videography is a huge part that Mr. Rogers encourages students to get involved with. Videos you can see online include a music video done two years ago by former quill students.

During a normal journalism class, the majority of the time you are working on your articles or videos. Mr. Rogers gives 2-3+ days to work on your projects in class. That is nice because you do not have to do all the work for homework. Filling out budgets (outline of your story), current events, and presentations are some other things that could be included in class.

The paper has a total of three editors. John Keehan (3 year member), Charlie Mazza (2 year member) and Wyatt Albers (2 year member) were all elected to be editors in the beginning of the year. These three guys “run” the show. The editors run the budget meetings and decide with Mr. Rogers what articles make the paper. They try to set the example for the rest of the staff.

Once you have taken the class, you will receive many benefits. As I learned in my first semester of journalism, I feel like I am a better writer. In the first semester, I wrote over fifteen articles. Students always have chances to improve on their work. Journalism also counts as an English credit.

Another benefit I gained from journalism was videography. I have never done any video filming or editing in my life until this year. Students use the nice Mac computers for the majority of editing. The classroom has a total of six Mac’s. It was a good experience because editing is fairly easy and making and posting videos can be a nice skill to learn in this digital age.

In conclusion, journalism is a solid class to take. Mr. Rogers is always open to any student who wants to contribute an article. Journalism is a better option to take rather than a seventh period study hall. If you want a fun, good worthy class, journalism might be right for you.