WOODBURY ーFrom print to radio and television to internet, technology has reshaped how people tell stories and share information. Yet, through all the changes, one thing has always stayed the same: journalism’s mission to inform, whether it’s locally, nationally or globally.

Nonnewaug High School journalism is dedicated to keeping students and staff informed about local events. The program upholds a strong tradition of journalism, making sure it remains an important part of the community.

Technology in journalism is always changing, but before online news, there were printed newspapers, even with the Nonnewaug Chief Advocate.

“When I first took over the class, around 2008, it was just old-fashioned newspaper form,” said English teacher, and one of the first journalism teachers, Marisa Holtman. “Then, the internet kind of took over and it became more of a digital thing. They say print media is dying and unfortunately, I think that’s the case. We used to print out four issues a year, like a real newspaper format, and then we would distribute it to the whole school, in each classroom. I always had high numbers, 25 to 30 kids a year. There was only one section, because at that time [journalism] was offered as an elective and not an English course.”

Sam Conti, a 2023 NHS graduate and a sophomore at Curry College, started her journalism career her freshman year of high school, and by her senior year she worked her way up to editor-in-chief.

“During my freshman year [in 2019], journalism was a class of about 10 girls,” said Conti. “We printed out a paper newspaper and didn’t have an online publication. We would walk around and hand out newspapers to anyone who would take them. Overall, not too many people read the paper copies — or even knew we had a school newspaper.”

With technology constantly evolving, Nonnewaug’s journalism program adapted by shifting its system to an online format.

“The Chief Advocate Instagram was developed my sophomore year, and that year marked the first year we started the NHS Chief Advocate online publication,” said Conti. “From that year on, the online publication continued. My junior year is when I think the Instagram really began to become popular around our school, which is when we spent more time posting and keeping it up to date. My senior year, my class spent a lot of time trying to develop new ideas to post besides just the stories we would re-post. We created “Nonne’s Next Up” which we came up with after trying to post every individual sports game day, which we found to be too much. We also came up with having an Athlete of the Month to further support and promote the athletes we had at Nonnewaug.”

Conor Gereg, an English and journalism teacher, is overwhelmed with the progress in size the journalism program has made since he first started.

“When [Kyle] Brennan and I began teaching the course, I believe it had about 32 kids in it split across two classes,” said Gereg. “He had one. I had one. Fast forward, four years later, I think we’re pushing close to a hundred students across five sections of journalism. It’s gotten to the point where now, we’ve pulled in Mr. [Ben] Guerette to teach an extra section just simply because we didn’t have the flexibility in our own schedules to take on this many kids.”

What’s behind the sudden increase in class size, and why are more students choosing to join?

Kyle Brennan, a social studies and journalism teacher, believes Nonnewaug’s school paper has grown over the past years and people want to be a part of it.

“People see journalism as an alternative form of writing that allows them to pursue some of their interests and also be engaged with the school community a little bit more,” said Brennan. “I think they’ve also seen that the Chief Advocate has done high-quality work that has been publicized pretty well over the last few years and so there’s people who say that they want to be a part of that.”

Counselor Christopher Maclean says journalism is a different kind of English class that has drawn the attention of many students.

“I think that a lot of the credit goes to Mr. Brennan and Mr. Gereg, who have kind of inspired students and motivated students and made it like a fun and productive class,” said Maclean. “You’re learning, but you’re also exploring teamwork and you’re doing interviews and all that. So I think that their efforts made a big difference in it. Also, because students can use journalism as their English requirement, it’s not like you have to fit another class in, that can be your English class. So it has gone from one to [five] sections, and then plus all the leadership sections.”

The NHS Chief Advocate journalism program has had tremendous growth in its students and work. Now the class is thriving with five periods and about 90 students.

“I think we’re just a lot more professional now. I think it’s a lot more student-driven now, like there’s the team of editors [who] for the most part has a good understanding of what’s needed and what’s not,” said Brennan. “They understand that we have a standard that we need to uphold and that we won’t just publish anything anymore. I also think when I started, not a lot of people in the school knew what the Chief Advocate was, and now I think almost everybody in the school community knows what the Chief Advocate is.”

But interest in the program starts earlier than you might think. The Chief Advocate promotes to the middle schoolers through Adam Brutting’s eighth-grade English class.

“I think they do a little bit of journalism and reporting at the middle school,” said Maclean. “I know that at some point, a group of journalism students have gone down to the middle school and worked with the middle schoolers. So I think it helps with that connection, but it just seems like journalism is an area of interest. It’s something students enjoy doing, and when you have the ability to carry on and you have the room in your schedule, people want to continue to do it because it’s with their friends, they like it, and they’re learning.”

Journalism wasn’t always a large class; it only started growing in the past few years.

“I remember in my freshman year [2022-23] our class was very small; I still can name every single person,” said Anna Crocker, a junior who this year is the Chief Advocate’s deputy editor-in-chief. “I can remember telling my friends about the class and them saying, ‘What the heck is journalism?’ But eventually, I convinced my friends to take my favorite class the following year. My sophomore year [2023-24] was very different; instead of a small, family-like class, the class was full.”

Also in 2023-24, the Chief Advocate was named a SNO Distinguished Site as one of the top high school journalism programs in the country for excellence in a number of areas.

So how do the journalism teachers feel about teaching such an interesting class?

“I like it most days. It’s one class where no matter how hard we work, I never feel like we’ve accomplished all that I set out to,” said Gereg. “I think that’s just the nature of writing in general, where you just never feel completely satisfied. It is challenging in that, in a class of 20, it’s like having 20 different lesson plans and you’re meeting with 20 different kids who need help on 20 different skills.”

Guerette, the newest journalism teacher, saw an opportunity in taking the new position.

“I just found out they needed someone for the fifth section. They just needed somebody, and they thought I would be a good fit for it. I thought, you know, it’s an interesting class. I didn’t know anything really about it, but I was interested in giving it a shot,” said Guerette. “It’s a little bit tricky with having so many different grades, so many different abilities all in one classroom. With the editors kind of helping me out, it’s so far been successful.”

Brennan finds comfort in teaching journalism as he sees a little bit of himself in each and every one of his students.

“I enjoy teaching journalism because it’s an authentic experience for our students to get to write about topics that they feel are important,” said Brennan. “I started my career as a journalist when I was a senior in high school, and journalism is a super valuable resource to our community.”

The Nonnewaug Chief Advocate has grown and evolved over the years, keeping up with new technology and expanding in both size and reach. What started as a small, traditional print publication has turned into a more flexible and accessible source of news, using the internet and modern reporting techniques to reach more people.

“Watching the journalism program grow from my freshman to senior year was something truly special,” Conti said, “and I am extremely grateful and proud to have been a part of.”