When I joined the Jacket in my sophomore year, I knew nothing about journalism and I didn\u2019t particularly care to learn \u2014 I just wanted the GPA boost and portfolio of published writing that I\u2019d been promised. My first article didn\u2019t change my mind either \u2014 I had to cover a school board meeting where the only thing discussed was the year\u2019s budget. I was bored nearly to tears.<\/p>\n
But as the year went on, I slowly began to fall in love with the Jacket. I don\u2019t know if it was the thrill of seeing my article on the front page or the realization that I was finally comfortable interviewing complete strangers that did it, but by second semester I was looking forward to each new assignment. I got to cover issues I\u2019d never been aware of before, like the lack of teacher parking or Berkeley High School\u2019s opportunity gap \u2014 spoiler alert: it\u2019s the second worst in the nation.<\/p>\n
At the start of my junior year, though, the Jacket pushed me out of my comfort zone once again. I became an editor of the Investigative section \u2014 the section I\u2019d been too intimidated by to join as a writer. Learning how to edit other students\u2019 writing, how to format pages, and how to come up with engaging article ideas was a struggle. Slowly, I gained confidence and skill, along with pride in my section and the work that we do. I love Investigative because of the close relationships I form with our writers, the creative freedom I get in putting together page eight, and the real impact we have at BHS. The ceiling fans we have in every classroom, for example, are partly due to an Investigative article from last year.<\/p>\n
Now as a graduating senior, the Jacket feels less like work and more like my home away from home. No matter what I have going on, the soundtrack of our EdBoard late nights \u2014 complaints about having pizza for dinner for the last few weeks in a row, impromptu yoga sessions, and my own insults of the cheesy affirmation cards that the editors-in-chief pass out \u2014 never fails to cheer me up. The work I\u2019ve done on Jacket is incredibly fulfilling, but the people are my family, and I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t acknowledge some of them. Sydney, my former co-editor and one of our wonderful editors-in-chief, you are one of the sharpest critical thinkers I know, and one of my closest friends. Elsie, my current co-editor, it has been such an honor to watch you grow over the last year; I\u2019m so proud of you, and I know you\u2019ll go on to do great things. Anna, current Investigative editor-in-training, you have a clear, albeit sardonic, voice and discerning eye; I can\u2019t wait to see where you and Elsie take the Investigative section next year. Please learn how to use InDesign. Mr. R, our incredible staff advisor, you give us all the space to make mistakes, so long as those mistakes won\u2019t get us sued, and make sure we balance our work with fun. You\u2019ve made me the journalist I am today. And to the rest of the EdBoard, who I\u2019d thank individually if I didn\u2019t have a very strict word limit, your dedication inspires me every day. There\u2019s nothing like being surrounded by passionate, talented people to give you hope for the future.<\/p>\n
As teenagers, we aren\u2019t often given a voice, much less told that we can create change. But on the Jacket, I\u2019ve seen the real impact that student voices can have. We have the power to change the world around us, to ensure a brighter future. All we have to do is reach out and take it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I joined the Jacket in my sophomore year, I knew nothing about journalism and I didn\u2019t particularly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-348979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}