// The piece below creates a timeline of events which had an impact on the Acalanes community in either a local or national regard. Blueprint's staff believes that these events are what helped shape 2023.
January: Learning to Weather the Storm of Mental Illness
As the winter season dragged on at the start of 2023, Blueprint took on a large story delving into the topics of depression and anxiety.
Writers Melina Nath and Lyanne Wang aimed for the piece to spread awareness of the presence of mental illness in the local community, and in doing so, comfort readers who may struggle with mental illness.
"We saw some research that said when people know they're not alone, they're less likely to harm themselves and also can help alleviate some of those feelings of isolation that often accompany mental illness," Print Editor-in-Chief Melina Nath said.
Putting together the story was a three month process. Writers had to collect preliminary information from experts before deciding their main focus.
"We started by talking with a lot of professionals …[including] doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, [and] some leaders of some mental health organizations, just to get an idea of how prevalent mental illness was in the teen population," Nath said
Writers then came to the conclusion that the story would be most effective if it was anchored in student voices in order to directly address mental illness at Acalanes.
"We transitioned to this idea of just sharing the student experience, so that meant interviewing as many students as we could from as many groups on campus as we could," Nath said.
Including numerous student experiences was important to Nath and Wang as they wanted the story to have a unifying impact on the community rather than solely providing outside information.
"Ultimately the goal of the story was that every single person who read this story would see the name of someone they were friends with so that we could create that sense of unity in helping each other when it comes to mental illness," Nath said.
Through the writing process, Nath and Wang were able to gain vast insight about the local impacts of mental illness.
"It just really opened my eyes to how things really do change with time, and I learned a lot of that through talking with adults who have struggled with mental illness throughout their life, including some of our favorite teachers here on campus," Nath said.
Febuary: AI For the Masses
Soon after the interactive free-to-use AI system ChatGPT released in November of 2022, many grew alarmed by the new capabilities of AI. Blueprint investigated its increasing role in society and local impact at Acalanes.
Writers Cedric He and Brady Quinn were inspired to investigate the topic by witnessing this rapid growth of technology themselves.
"I had heard about ChatGPT and had the chance to play around with it before most of my friends started using it. I felt that the technology was truly groundbreaking in its capabilities, so I decided to write this story to learn more about its impacts on my community," He said.
However, since the emergence of ChatGPT was relatively new, writers faced difficulty with connecting with people who were knowledgeable about the way these new AI systems functioned.
"At first we really struggled to get interviews to talk about the technical side of ChatGPT," He said.
Despite challenges in the writing process, He and Quinn overcame them by centering their story on the local impacts of emerging generative AI.
"As the story progressed, however, we were really able to come up with a lot of unique and thought-provoking angles," He said.
Through talking with Acalanes students and staff, writers encountered numerous ideas about the rise of AI, ranging from those who were excited about the future of AI to those who were fearful of its increased role in society.
"We had plenty of students and teachers who were willing to share their input on this new form of AI," He said.
Ultimately, the piece explored the complexities of a topic that was still new and uncertain to many readers to help readers understand a broader perspective of its functions and impacts.
"It doesn't matter how big the story you're writing is, it's still journalism… I learned to focus on creating quality journalism as opposed to thinking about how this story might stack up against other cover stories," He said.
March: Celebrating Women's Excellence
To highlight International Women's History Month, Blueprint attended many events on campus to report on the dialogues and celebrations.
The Acalanes Feminism Club collaborated with numerous other groups on campus to host various events throughout this month, aiming to educate attendees on women's history. Writers Maddyx Bride and Aya O'Neal focused on covering the main ideas of each event.
"The process of writing this article included attending the various women's excellence events throughout the month and interacting with the students at these events," O'Neal said.
As the calendar of events did not directly align with the Blueprint draft cycle, writers were restricted to covering the events within the timeframe.
"We got the calendar and we made a list of all of the events that happened. Some of them were happening after [the deadline and] we couldn't cover those, and some of them happened before the story was assigned," Bride said.
Writers hoped that their story would help inspire future progress regarding women's excellence by emphasizing the impact of the Feminism Club's efforts.
"A lot of times when learning about societal achievements, we hear a lot about what men have done, so I wanted this article to be able to highlight events that contributed to creating a more inclusive narrative that recognizes women's capabilities and accomplishments," O'Neal said.
Additionally, the story highlighted students' initiative on campus to have their voices heard.
"There's so many cool things happening on campus that we take for granted… there's so much planning that has to go into them, all these different departments have to work together," Bride said.
April: Examining Abortion Restrictions
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June of 2022, heated protests supporting both sides of the debate fled to the streets, making national headlines and taking the country by storm.
Many members of Blueprint leadership, including Melina Nath, Jacqueline Kuhner, Finley Reid, Haley Chelemedos, Maya Agarwal, and Grace Gallacher, wrote this story to provide the community with unbiased information regarding the overturned Abortion law.
"I wanted to write this piece because it is a topic I am interested and invested in, and I feel that it was very important for our community to be informed on such a transformative event," Gallacher said.
Since the topic became a national debate, the writers made sure to report solely on the facts without bias, research, and interview a wide range of sources with understanding and background.
"In working on the piece I learned where to find important information regarding these kinds of events, how powerful the Supreme Court is, and how significant national news is even within our community which is why I started Gallacher's Gist.
With so much news and controversy surrounding the topic, the writers knew the piece could have mixed opinions. However, the community feedback appeared positive.
"I think the community found it very informative and overall appreciated it," Gallacher said.
May: Tearing Off Flags and Tackling Barriers
Amidst the topic of a flag football program up in the air before the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, interest and excitement surrounding flag football pushed it to be admitted into the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and offered as an official Acalanes sport.
Writers Jacqueline Kuhne, Haley Chelemedos, and Reid Aldrich wrote this piece to investigate the addition of flag football to the Acalanes athletic department.
"I wanted to write this piece because the opportunity for women at Acalanes to play flag football was really exciting to me. Exploring the possibility and talking to students who wanted to play helped me learn about the program and offered information about the history of women's sports at Acalanes and in the District," Chelemedos said.
Due to the novelty of the sport and the complications surrounding its approval and admission, obtaining confirmed information on the topic was complicated.
"The process for writing the article was a little chaotic because nobody really knew how confident they would be of flag football's arrival to Acalanes. The other writers and I did our best to keep investigating and eventually determined that enough students showed interest for flag football to become a sport at Acalanes, which turned out to be true," Chelemedos said.
Though some challenges arose, the writers began their research with a clear vision of their story's end goal, which simplified their process.
"[Our] goal for this story was to encourage female athletes at Acalanes to learn about flag football and potentially play in the fall. Flag football was a huge step for female athletes on campus and increasing participation was an objective I wanted to help reach," Chelemedos said.
June: Seniors Sent off in Style at Car Rally
Decorated cars, noisy cheers, and Lafayette streets lined with friends and families can only mean one thing: the annual Senior Car Rally.
Avery Robb photographed and created this photo collage to commemorate the 2022-2023 seniors on their graduation and futures after Acalanes.
"I wanted to take pictures at the event because it was my brother's graduating class, and I was friends with a lot of the seniors, so I thought it would be fun," Robb said.
Since the piece did not include interviews, Robb's process and connection to the event were much simpler. This allowed Robb to fully encapsulate the joy and memories of the seniors bidding farewell to their families and the community.
"My process for taking the photos was to get pictures of the seniors with their cars and friends before the rally began, and I was also in the rally because of my brother, so I took pictures during the event itself, too," Robb said.
The car rally gave the community a glimpse into the students' futures and students smiling next to their families, cars, and college flags. The collage was a hit as pictures excite people, especially when they are featured or see their friends.
"I asked a bunch of people to send me any photos they had, and I think a lot of people were excited to see themselves or their friends in the story, so it was received pretty well," Robb said.
August: New and Blue - Upgrades to the Acalanes Track and Field
During the late summer of 2023, Acalanes replaced its track and turf using funds provided by the state and Acalanes Sports Boosters.
The track was replaced with softer synthetic rubber, and workers added a fresh coat of paint to it. Additionally, the endzones were redone in Acalanes blue and included the school name. These improvements motivated student-athletes to perform their best at games and invitationals.
Writers Saaj Shah, Nico Roig, Emily Roberts, Neve Murphy, Hailee Shah, and Helena McGinley wrote this story to cover the changes being made and students' reactions to the all-new track and green.
"I wanted to understand more about changes in our community and see how it impacted our school spirit and students," Shah said.
As all writers were new Staff Writers to Blueprint at the start of the school year, many felt that this story was effective at helping them appreciate the process behind developing an article.
"Originally, I was confused on how to structure a Blueprint article, length, and formatting. But with the help of advisors and fellow writers, I felt that it was not too difficult to pull off," Shah said.
Writing this article also introduced the writers to the nature of Blueprint's deadlines and the importance of collaborating with other writers.
"It was a great way to start my blueprint career, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun writing it," Roig said.
September: Changing Campus Culture
Acalanes Leadership collaborated with school culture organization Ignite 2 Unite on Sept. 11 to host a day-wide event promoting a more unified campus.
Writers Olivia Foster and Hanna Wisniewska wrote this story for Blueprint's Issue 2, Volume 84, to cover the bonding and community activities that occurred during the event and student perspectives on improving school spirit and participation.
"I wanted to write this story because I heard about the culture group around campus and from my friends. I was interested in the topic because over the past few years I noticed that the Acalanes culture seems to be divided between groups and writing this article allowed me to learn more about why this division exists. I thought that this article would be interesting to write since it applies to everyone who is a current student," Wisniewska said.
Acalanes Leadership and administration brought in student leaders from various classes. This was the first school culture evaluation hosted on campus since previous attempts were interrupted by the global pandemic and its impact on social gatherings and community bonding activities. Inviting students from Acalanes' many communities helped introduce new dialogue on how our community can show up and create a culture where everyone feels like they belong.
"In the beginning, I thought that the story would mainly focus on the shortcomings of Acalanes' school culture, but in the end, it turned out to be different than I had imagined. [But] in addition to exploring the ways in which our campus community wanted to see improvements in campus culture, we were able to highlight the ways in which our culture is already a positive influence at school," Foster said.
Both writers felt engaged throughout the writing process as the topic directly impacted their experiences as members of the Acalanes community. Moreover, talking to many culture group participants motivated them to explore as many angles as possible.
"I learned that writing about something you are passionate about will motivate you to work on the article. I was interested in the school culture as I saw the divisions or differences on campus. When writing the article, I felt motivated to work on the writing, and I was excited for my interviews. When writing some articles that I was not quite interested in as much as this one, I did not feel the same motivation," Wisniewska said.
October: New Approach to Drug Education and Awareness
As the fentanyl crisis continued to metastasize nationwide, Acalanes administrators decided to host an immersive awareness presentation for juniors and seniors in late Sept., covering the deadly effects of fake pills made of fentanyl and the risks of drug usage.
Sophie Gold, Melisa Adatepe, and Arman Craig wrote this story to provide the community with invaluable information regarding the ongoing fentanyl crisis and the rise of teen overdoses across the country.
"I wanted to write this story because I think fentanyl awareness is important and has become increasingly important recently. When writing this, I knew that we were spreading information that could potentially save lives," Gold said.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl is a major contributor to both fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the U.S.
"My most significant takeaway from writing this story is the crucial role education and awareness play in addressing the fentanyl crisis. Education can help spread accurate information and reduce stigma about substance abuse which can potentially save lives. Another takeaway is that empathy and open conversations can go a long way in helping people deal with learning about fentanyl as well as helping people affected by substance abuse," Gold said.
November: Here's the Buzz on Local Businesses
In Blueprint's Issue 3, Volume 84 cover story, writers Maddyx Bride and Audrey Parkin took a closer look at how Lafayette's small businesses coped with the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown. Their article evolved beyond a simple exploration of post-lockdown adaptations, shedding light on why some storefronts remained vacant.
Bride and Parkin conducted various interviews with local business owners and noticed the unexpected gratitude expressed during these conversations, revealing a deep connection between the community and its businesses.
"During interviews, I think it was the most I had ever been thanked for writing an article and for reaching out, which was extremely gratifying," Bride said.
The article served as a practical guide for community involvement, stressing the tangible impact of Lafayette's local businesses. The writers felt the story evolved beyond news coverage to become a reminder of the resilience of small businesses and the shared duty of the community to sustain them.
"If the readers walked away with anything, I wanted it to be that they have an active role in keeping this vibrant downtown that they love so much and that it is almost their responsibility to make sacrifices like shopping in person or buying slightly more expensive goods from smaller businesses if they want to benefit from a beautiful downtown," Bride said.
December: Getting Back on Track
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, public transportation agencies like Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) are grappling with restoring ridership to pre-pandemic levels.
Blueprint's Issue 4, Volume 84 features an exploration by writers Jenna Kessler, Cameron Powell, Arman Craig, and Kaivo Kadai on the recovery of public transportation following a significant decline during COVID-19.
"We had a general direction for where we wanted the story to go because we knew that public transit had been heavily impacted by the pandemic and has been trying to find ways to adapt ever since. So we reached out to representatives of two local public transit agencies, BART and County Connection, to find out exactly how they were impacted and what changes they have made in response to losing ridership," Powell said.
As public transportation plays a present role in the community, writers gathered various sources to understand the intricacies and background of the topic.
"I wanted to write this story because I was curious about how the local community currently views public transit and how much their experience has changed along with actions that the transit agencies have taken," Powell said.
Recognizing the role of public transportation in the community, writers gathered insights from various sources to understand the complexities and background of the issue. Beyond community perspectives, the story aimed to inform readers about the ongoing efforts to restore public transportation to its former strength.
"I wanted people to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic hurt local public transit agencies, all the work they are doing to recover from it, and why public transit is an important part of our community," Kessler said.
Overall, the article provides comprehensive information to keep the community informed about the accessibility and current use of public transit.
"I think that this story allowed readers to become more informed about the changes to BART and County Connection and possibly begin to consider these options as an alternative to driving," Powell said.
Written by:
Lulu Levy and Kiran Foster, Online Editors-in-Chief
Cameron Powell, Online Editor-At-Large
Sophie Chinn, Online Editor-At-Large
Cedric He, Print Feature Copy Editor
Reid Aldrich, Online Managing Editor
No comments:
Post a Comment