Thirteen students from the Hawthorne High School’s Journalism class attended a field trip to The Record in Woodland Park on Thursday March 14, 2013, to get a first-hand look at how the newspaper works.

Starting off with a tour of the building, the journalism students were able to see every part of where the paper is made and how many people it takes to make it happen. Ray Edel, news reporter and our tour guide for The Record field trip, discussed how the news organization had to downsize recently because of budget costs. However, it was clear to the students that it takes a lot of dedicated people with a range of different skills and backgrounds to get a paper published daily.

The students were given the opportunity to sit in on a live meeting of their choice–either feature news or daily morning news meetings. Students who chose the news meeting saw first-hand how the articles for the paper the next day are prepared.  In the news meeting, editors and writers sat around a round table in ‘assigned’ seats with some contributing through intercom. The students were able to see how the editors and writers work together by giving criticism, ideas, or approval of each other’s work. The reporters and their editors went through an agenda and discussed new stories, movie reviews, sports, and any local news that needed to be put in the paper. Sha’la Padilla, a senior journalism student stated, “It was very interesting to see how the paper actually comes together and is set up.”

The journalism students also received a few lessons on how to be better writers and work on an online newspaper.  One speaker was Rebecca O’Brien, a news reporter for The Record, who talked to the young journalists about writing stories and making sure those stories reach a wide audience. O’Brien had everyone laughing when she said, “I tweet my stories. A lot.” O’Brien made a point by saying that the more people who know about your stories, the more readership you’ll gain and the more you can grow your reputation as a writer. Senior student, Kirsten Meneses commented, “Rebecca O’Brien was very informative and gave us a lot of tips about reporting.”

Kali Spoelstra, journalism teacher, stated, “The trip was fun and informative. I think it really opened up students’ eyes to the world of journalism in a way that writing in a classroom can’t.”