A few days in the lives of KO News writers and editors display the drive and passion students have to write and photograph everyday. Here is a snippet of what happens behind the text – in text.
Saturday:
2:00: Associate Photo Mike Aronson gets a superb shot of Ky Petteway sporting KO colors as he dives and catches the ball in a football game against Cushing Academy. Shooting on his Nikon D500, Mike achieved a picture that fit perfectly into the margins of the KO News. “It was incredible that he caught the ball, so I’m happy I captured that moment,” Mike said.
Sunday:
7:30: Editor-in-Chief Ben Small forces himself not to sleep in and instead wakes up for News Day.
8:00: KO News students arrive at KO for a jam packed day of work and eating bagels.
“I love News Day because it’s so nice seeing the paper finally come together after working so hard on articles,” Managing Editor for Features, Arts, Opinions Nell Schwartz said. “Even though it’s really early in the morning on a weekend, everyone likes to help each other and see what the final product is.”
8:05: Head Photography Editor Ali Meizels begins formatting photos, so they can be used in print.
8:10: Associate Features Editor Alyssa Pilecki begins to edit fellow features editors’ articles.
“While it’s a lot of work reading through many of the articles, they are all interesting, and it’s so cool to physically see all of our work when the paper comes out,” Managing Editor for News, Sports, Investigative Journalism Lian Wolman said.
9:00: Head Editors design pages for editors to layout.
12:00: Most Associate and Head Editors finish tweaking the article they worked on.
“After News Day, Ben, Nell, Ms. Schieffelin, and I split up the newspaper and go through all of the pages reading for any mistakes whether it’s formatting issues, correcting facts or fixing awkward sentences,” Lian said.
2:00: Ben heads out to continue his day after looking over the news pages.
Monday:
7:50: Ali photographs the player of the month. Click click and done. Or so it seems.
Ali said the KO News means a lot to her because she can show up to social event with a purpose. “I actually wrote my college essay about taking pics for KO News and how that connected me to the community,” Ali said.
10:00: Ben preps questions to ask a teacher in an interview.
Ben said his favorite person to interview was former Head of School Dennis Bisgaard. “I’d say it was probably interviewing Mr. Bisgaard about his legacy at KO and what he hopes the next head of school will do,” Ben said. “It was cool writing about this pretty significant transition in KO history.”
12:00: Nell interviews Chinese teacher Naogan Ma about her journey she took to arrive at KO.
“I love interviewing teachers because I get to know them on a more personal level and hear their stories before they started teaching at KO,” Nell said. “Many teachers have amazing anecdotes about life and stories from their own life as a student, so I love getting to them on that level.”
3:00: Ali shoots a photo of musician of the month.
3:05: Associate Photo Editor Amelia Levine snaps a picture of the new Middle School teachers.
3:30: Alyssa interviews a fellow student. “I like the opportunity to meet new people and find out about their interests and personalitites,” Alyssa said.
4:00: Ali captures the moment a field hockey player slams the ball into the net for a sports photo.
6:00: The KO News planning meeting begins, providing pizza and a space to brainstorm article ideas.
However, articles are not the only thing students will take away from the KO News. “I became closer with Ben Poulios and Esha Kataria because we all can spend more time together,” Investigative Journalism Editor Ishaa Sohail.
7:00: Everyone goes home full of ideas, interviews to plan, teachers to track down, and photos to take for the next month.
