Good news! Obama Academy students debut Eagle Times school newspaper
For Aavin Mangalmurti, starting high school in fall 2020 meant beginning a new phase of his academic life in a pandemic-altered environment.
“It was hard to stay involved during freshman year,” said the 15-year-old Obama Academy sophomore. “You’re going into a new school, and you don’t know what’s going on and have no way to get involved.”
Even after in-person classes resumed this school year, it was difficult for Aavin and other Obama Academy underclassmen to fully immerse themselves in what the school had to offer due to how many clubs and student organizations had been disbanded after the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. That included Obama Academy’s student newspaper, The Eagle, which stopped publishing articles after the senior class of 2020 graduated.
Sensing a way to both get involved and increase morale around the school, Aavin took it upon himself to recruit some friends and start a new Obama Academy student newspaper. The first edition of The Eagle Times came out in February. It immediately got the student body talking and quickly inspired some of them to inquire about writing for it in the future.
“I think school newspapers are important to inform the student body and also voice the student body,” Aavin said. “Especially after the pandemic where it’s hard to have your voice be heard, I think a newspaper can do a really good job of having students’ voices heard. It’s just a good thing to have.”
He serves as the newspaper’s executive editor, and its editorial staff is rounded out by a crew that includes quite a few of his fellow Obama Academy Student Council members.
The Eagle Times is currently a monthly publication but might become biweekly if student interest allows its staff to expand, Aavin said.
Joe Ehman, an Obama Academy teacher who also coordinates the school’s International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, serves as The Eagle Times’ faculty adviser. He sees the newspaper as an important step toward “getting kids back to doing the school stuff they should’ve been doing” after the pandemic totally warped their sense of what a normal high school experience should look like.
He described Aavin as “a kid who you know is going to do amazing things,” and he loves that he and his friends were so enthusiastic about spearheading a project like The Eagle Times. The students manning The Eagle Times are “why people want to be teachers and why kids want to come to this school,” Mr. Ehman said.
“These guys wanted to make an impact but also wanted to learn too,” he said. “It’s a work in progress, but they’re excited. It builds morale, school spirit and interest in things that are very different since the pandemic.”
Encouraging school spirit is part of what motivated Mariah Gaines, a 16-year-old Obama Academy sophomore, to join The Eagle Times as an editor.
“I thought it would be a very fun and interesting way for us to bring some more school spirit,” she said. “Because of the pandemic, it was just bleh for everybody. Even just releasing the first edition, it’s been something for people to talk about positively or bring up in conversations with friends to bring some non-school work to school.”
The first edition included stories on Obama Academy’s girls basketball team beating rival Allderdice for a City League title, why the school needs a new sports field, Pittsburgh-born Winter Olympian JohnHenry Krueger, a teacher profile, a slice of Obama Academy history and more.
It also sparked a minor stir, thanks to an article about an Obama Academy “confessions page” on Instagram that Mariah said “brought a lot of engagement” both online and off. That story is a prime example of how Aavin and his staff want to strike a balance between hard news, features and columns that give students a chance to voice their concerns.
“A newspaper can encompass so much,” said Isaiah Trumbull, a 15-year-old sophomore and Eagle Times editor. “There are so many parts of it. ... I think it’s really cool that people want to get involved and be a part of something.”
He warned his fellow classmates that if they don’t starting pickup up the latest edition of The Eagle Times, they’ll soon find that their friend are “going to be talking about things you won’t know about anymore.” Norma Fruzynski, another 15-year-old sophomore and Eagle Times editor, said that “the articles are going to keep getting better” as everyone gets used to the demands and process of putting together a newspaper.
Aavin promised multiple follow-ups to that confessions page story and even more premium content coming Obama Academy’s way in subsequent issues.
“The newspaper is here to stay,” he said. “You better be ready. We’re going to get into things.”
‘a really good job of having students’ voices heard’