Eight students at Southwest Open School in Cortez who serve on student government have dabbled in journalism since February.
So far, they’ve printed two, eight-page editions of The Bottom Line, thanks to “the glue that holds this paper together,” said Editor-in-Chief Christopher Kelley, who has “almost lost his mind twice.”
Kelley has paid a pretty penny – nearly $200 – to print the 50 copies of the newspaper for students to enjoy, and, as he put it, “can’t keep that up” every month.
That’s where the fundraising comes in– online, people can donate to support student journalism at SWOS and its print edition at https://givebutter.com/3cteyT.
“SWOS has never had a paper before,” said Kescoleigh Boeckman, a student journalist who’s contributed both the headline stories so far.
“We’re a small school, and this gives us an opportunity to get into a new kind of thing,” said Boeckman.
Students called the experience “inspiring” and reported having enjoyed the challenge of writing something that wasn’t quite an essay, and not persuasive writing, either.
They’ve enjoyed it so much, in fact, that they’re hoping to establish a journalism class next year– a feat that requires sorting out credits, said Kelley.
Establishing a class would make it so students outside of student government could more easily contribute to the paper. It’d also give students time to work on their stories in school– as it stands, the eight student journalists write their stories outside of classroom hours, on their own time.
“I spend five to six hours doing an album review,” said Dominik Horton. “I listen to the album at least eight times.”
From there, Horton does a deep dive, reading reviews, Reddit, searching for shared meanings of songs. Eventually, “I’ll come up with my own meaning.”
Student journalist Rae Cargill said, “I’ve learned a lot more about how people judge movies.”
To piece together the paper each month, everyone has sort of adopted a role, though that role can change.
Josalynn Archuleta is the quote finder, who reportedly spends a great deal of time finding the right one since there are so many quotes to choose from.
Archuleta eventually settled on one from former President Ronald Reagan for the latest edition: “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
Kalista Summers shares fun facts, like how the average cloud weighs over 1 million pounds, and “Abraham Lincoln loved cats.”
Leo Griffin hones horoscopes, Dante Crawford conducts student interviews, and Luca Blair focuses on fashion.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback on it,” Cargill said, of the paper. “People either love it or they hate it. There’s no in-between.”
Some negative feedback they received concerned the print version– students complained that it was “messy.” The student journalists said that “they don’t realize it’s homemade. It’s a newspaper, SWOS edition.”
“It’s cool to see students walking around campus with a print paper in their hands,” said Kelley.
Another point of contention was the “sexy purple dragon” they put on the upper right corner of the front page and across the entire back page, too.
“That’s what you call a page filler,” Kelley laughed.
Kelley said they prompted AI to create an image of a “sexy purple dragon” – a play on SWOS’s mascot – and they voted to choose the one pasted on the paper.
Those interested in supporting the student newspaper can reach out to Christopher Kelley via email at ckelley@cortez.k12.co.us, or donate online.
