The largest high school program of its kind in the United States, Paly’s journalism department is a place where students have amazing opportunities to shine. It has grown into a full-blown multi­media publishing concern to rival almost any organization, let alone a high school.

Palo Alto High School (Paly) enjoys a rich legacy of excellence. Influenced by its proximity to Stanford University, the Silicon Valley business community, and San Francisco's metropolitan impact, Paly has been continually recognized for its exemplary learning environment and for its students' personal and academic achievements. With an outstanding academic reputation, long list of national awards, and a strong belief in quality public education, life at Paly is good-particularly in the journalism program.

The largest high school program of its kind in the United States, Paly's journalism department is a place where students have amazing opportunities to shine. Spearheaded by Esther Wojcicki for the last quarter-century, the Paly journalism department has grown into a full-blown multi­media publishing concern to rival almost any organization, let alone a high school.

Benefits

    * Engage students in seamless, interdisciplinary workflows
    * Prepare students for real-world publishing opportunities
    * Provide wide forum for freedom of expression and creative outlet
    * Instill sense of school pride and build on tradition of excellence
    * Be recognized with scholastic press, industry, and media awards

Project Details

Freedom of expression

"Our programs are student-centric," says Wojcicki, who credits freedom of expression and teacher support as key influences on the program's growth. Every time registration swelled in a journalism class, a new class was added to the curriculum to expand areas of publishing interest. "We give students a lot of freedom," says Wojcicki. "That's really the calling card they embrace." The media buzz is contagious, as students engage with Adobe technology to publish everything from news, opinions, and lifestyle features to sports analysis and music reviews interchangeably in print, broadcast, and on the web. And they do it all with professional panache that belies their young age.

Today, the biggest journalism project is the Paly newspaper, The Campanile. Published every three weeks, The Campanile boasts the greatest longevity of all Paly publications. Originally started in 1918 as a six-page monthly with eight students on staff, it has now expanded to more than 26 pages with 70 student staff members who collaborate in integrated Adobe desktop publishing workflows. Taking advantage of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium software, students use Adobe InDesign CS3 software to create multi-page layouts, Adobe Photoshop CS3 software to edit and enhance photos, and Adobe Illustrator CS3 software to create more complex vector graphics. Students also organize thousands of digital assets using Adobe Bridge CS3, which streamlines the workflow in a highly visual manner.

"The essential tasks of enlarging, reducing, lightening, and darkening photos used to be a complex process for high school students," says Wojcicki. "Now it's built in to Adobe Photoshop CS3, making the process a breeze. Adobe has clearly thought through and simplified the entire publishing process." Most students are new to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium tools when they start class, but after just a few sessions of basic training, they "get it." Wojcicki prefers to front-load the software training process and then reinforce instruction daily in practical situations.

Real-world career preparation

Following the integrated media approach essential in today's publishing world, the faculty at Paly moved beyond traditional journalism classes into broadcast journalism. In Focus, the television news station at Paly, serves to disseminate campus news and selected features to the school community with professionalism, humor, and unbounded creativity. Students use Adobe Premiere Elements software to digitally edit content for in-depth, web-based video segments. For example, a student team created a promotional piece for the Teen Drama program that has the potential to become a YouTube top pick.

As the journalism program continued to expand, Wokcicki created Verde, Paly's news and general feature magazine. The second largest class in the journalism department, Verde is produced by students six times a year and showcases a more subjective look into news and reviews on music, restaurants, and film. The first issue, published in Fall 1999 with a team of 20 staff members, was an 80-page quarterly magazine that was received warmly by the Paly campus community and the scholastic journalism community at large. Notably, that first issue won a Pacemak­er-one of the two most prestigious awards in scholastic journalism-from the National Scholastic Press Association.

Rounding out Paly's journalism program is the department's newest addition, the sports magazine class. The Viking is published six times a year and is available both online and in print. Again, the student workflow includes components of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium similar to The Campanile and Verde.

No program would be complete without web journalism, replete with social connectivity, blogging, and live feeds. The Paly Voice, a website created using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 software, debuted with students presenting their own reporting, writing, and photography along with repurposed content from the school's magazine, newspaper, and broadcast classes. The site also serves as a searchable archive of the content from all Paly publications. Students are using Adobe Fireworks CS3 software to optimize graphics for web presentation, and Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software to create motion graphics for the web that are viewable with the free Adobe Flash Player.

Paly's Journalism Department continues to win industry awards. According to Wojcicki, students strive to exceed the previous year's tradition of excellence. She doesn't have to push the students to learn as they tend toward self-motivation. Wojcicki appreciates that the new Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium is well integrated and has all of the software included to teach students how to publish a newspaper, create advertising, design a website, or produce broadcast-caliber content. "We teach with Adobe tools because they are the industry standard. Why would we use anything else?" says Wojcicki. "Our entire Paly journalism program gives students a proactive, creative arena that is socially sanctioned and incredibly useful as students move into higher education and careers paths.

"When Paly students are done with the Journalism program, they have all the skills necessary to start their own publications with the experience they have gained using Adobe products," says Wojcicki. "In fact, several of our students have gone on to create their own publishing revolutions."

 "The essential tasks of enlarging, reducing, lightening, and darkening photos used to be a complex process for high school students. Now it's built in to Adobe Photoshop CS3, making the process a breeze. Adobe has clearly thought through and simplified the entire publishing process."

    Esther Wojcicki
    Teacher, advisor, and head of journalism department
    Palo Alto High School

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