Pioneer Press revived after 14 years

GENTRY — For the first time in 14 years, Gentry High School has published its school newspaper, the Pioneer Press.

The eight-page newspaper was written and published by students under the guidance of journalism teacher Alishia Ramsey. Articles in the publication include a report on homecoming, the flu-shot clinic, GHS club news, fall fashions, Gentry’s foreign exchange students, an informative article on Hmong in America, information about the new student identification cards, and articles on football, volleyball, golf and more.

Why did the high school resume publishing a school newspaper after so many years?

“The (school) administration came to me and asked if I would be interested in starting a school paper,” said Ramsey. “When we first started talking about it, we were not aware that the school had a paper in the past.”

The last paper was published in 1995, Ramsey said. And much in the world of writing and printing newspapers has changed since then.

“It was exciting, frustrating and exhausting to build the first paper,” Ramsey said. “Another difficult thing was getting everything set up on the computer. The last time I did a paper, we laid everything out by hand.” she said.

“It was a lot of really hard work, but the end result was definitely worth it,” said co-editor Desiree’ Ellis.

“One of the most difficult things was getting our questions answered in a timely manner,” said senior Adora Lee.

But the hard work paid off and brought a lot of satisfaction to Ramsey and to the students of Gentry High School.

“The most enjoyable thing was getting to see the finished product and getting to hold it in our hands,” Ramsey said after the first printed issue was delivered to the school and distributed.

“We worked so hard to get the articles written, and it was really gratifying to hold the paper in my hand and say that I had a part in putting it together,” said junior Kayle Blaine.

Not only did the newspaper staff enjoy seeing their finished work. They got to see other students reading the paper and enjoying it.

Ramsey said it was enjoyable to see the students sitting around, reading the paper and smiling. “Knowing that we helped put that smile on their faces was very satisfying,” she said.

And the school staff and students have been very supportive and complimentary of the new school newspaper.

“It was very rewarding to be a part of this first edition of the student newspaper my senior year,” co-editorAmberly Horton said. “It is something that I will be able to keep and show my kids in the future.”

Ramsey said that, for this year, the staff is planning on doing one paper for each nine-week period of the school year.

“Next year, we would like to up that number,” Ramsey said. “In the future we want to include information and articles from the other campuses. We would also like to have color pictures in some of the papers,” she said.

Overall, the experience has been both educational and enjoyable for the student staff who gatherednews and photos, wrote articles and edited their work for the revived publication.

“I have had a lot of fun writing the articles because I love to write,” junior Andee Haden said.

The Pioneer Press was printed by Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, LLC. Kent Marts, editor of the new newspaper company’s weekly papers, assisted Ramsey in getting things set up for the first issue of the Pioneer Press.

And with the first issue out, Ramsey and her student staff are hard at work getting things ready for the paper’s second issue.