As the 2014-2015 school year comes to an end, we must take the time to thank our three senior editors, who have worked so hard editing our articles, and staying past school hours to make sure our website looked the best it possibly can. Joanna, Yasmim, and Bernice all joined Journalism as sophomores. This year, they have been amazing leaders and editors to work with, and the underclassmen of the Journalism class couldn’t thank them enough. On behalf of the Journalism class, we wish you all the best in your future!

 Joanna:

What college are you going to?
George Washington University.

What are you going to miss most about ISSH?
I am going to miss going to a small school, where you know all the students and teachers and are really close with them. I will miss the close-knit ISSH community.

Are you planning on getting involved in Journalism at GWU?
Yes, hopefully!

What is something you learnt in Journalism that you can take to college with you?
I learnt how to write different types of articles. For example, when I went to the journalism conference, I learnt how to write a news article in a really short period of time. I also learnt how to go out and look for interesting stories to write about. Now, whenever I see new or interesting things, I often find myself thinking, “I should write about that for Journalism.”

What did you think about The International going online?
At first I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to publish new material every week, because I was so used to only writing a couple of stories a semester for the print newspaper. However, being able to publish every week gave us an opportunity to cover many more relevant topics and make our website more interesting. I felt that we had more freedom to write about what we wanted to, since we didn’t have to worry that much about spacing and layouts.

What are some challenges you faced making the website?
At first, I found it tricky to use WordPress, since I haven’t used it before. But it’s actually pretty easy to use, once you get the hang of it, and it’s much more efficient than InDesign, which is what we used last year. Another challenge was continuously publishing every week, especially when our schedule was interrupted by holidays and school events.

Which article are you most proud of?
Too Horrifying To Be True, Too Horrifying To Question. Because it is a difficult topic to talk about and I had to do a lot of research about it. It took me a while to finish it because it was hard to come up with a satisfying conclusion, but I’m really proud with the end result, because it tackles an important issue in our society.

What is your best memory in journalism?
I enjoyed having mini parties to celebrate our awards. I’m going to miss it next year!

Yasmim:

What college are you going to?
Simon Fraser in Canada.

What are you going to miss most about ISSH?
I am going to miss the international vibe at ISSH. 

Are you planning on getting involved in Journalism at Simon Fraser?
Yes! I am going to major in communications, so I am planning on joining journalism.

What is something you learnt in journalism that you can take to college with you?
I learnt how to write under pressure. I also learnt to adapt to people’s style of writing. For example, some people write slower, some people take a longer time to decide what they are going to write and so on. I really learnt to work in a team.

What did you think about The International going online?
It was very challenging, because last year one person wrote about four articles the entire school year, but this year, we need to write so much more. We also needed to focus on more detail, for example the photos, the credits. However, it was very rewarding because we were able to publish timely articles such as school and world news.

What are some challenges you faced making the website?
Becoming an editor was really challenging because it was difficult to make sure the writer still kept their voice in their articles while editing. I also felt more responsibility to make The International as perfect as it can be, especially because people all over the world could read our articles. But at the same time that responsibility was very rewarding. 

Which article are you most proud of?
I really like my Why ‘The Interview’ is exactly what the world does not need review. This is because I felt really strongly about the movie so it was fun to write about.  I also really like my Cultural appreciation or appropriation because it was a ‘spur of the moment’ idea and I wrote it in fifteen minutes. I also got a lot of compliments on it.

What is your best memory in journalism?
Every time Bernice got censored. If we published Bernice’s articles as they were, we would get into so much trouble.

Bernice:

What college are you going to?
I don’t know yet.

What are you going to miss most about ISSH?
I’m going to miss the uniforms, because we look cute.

Are you planning on joining journalism club at your school?
I’m not sure if they have a journalism group. I heard that you can get paid joining the journalism groups in some colleges, so if I’m going to get paid, then, yes, I’m definitely joining.

What is something you learnt in journalism that you can take to college with you?
I learnt how to write precisely. I learnt to write what matters, because sometimes my writing style can be overly excessive.

What did you think about The International going online?
It was the best thing ever. We were way more active, and people worked harder.

What are some challenges you faced making the website?
We needed to work harder, because we had to constantly put out more content, and that was definitely a challenge. 

Which article are you most proud of?
I like my debate articles. I feel like they are a pretty good representation of the way I speak and who I am. 

What is your best memory in journalism?
I was looking at events happening in May for our “May Hits and Misses” article, and I saw “Ugly Abuse Awareness Month” was in May. And so I turned to Yasmim and I said,“That should be a hit!” There was a ten second pause, and we realised what an unfortunate use of words that was and burst out laughing.