I wrote for my high school’s student newspaper, the Central Stampede, for two and a half years. And I can honestly say it was some of the most fun I had in my four years. It was so much more than just writing or reporting or snapping pictures. While improved writing skills were a byproduct of being a part of my school’s paper, it was not what kept me signing up year after year for the class. Here are the six other reasons I highly recommend joining your high school’s student newspaper.

1. You will develop great people skills.

You are constantly dealing with people. Whether it’s the student who’s never in school but the only one you can interview for your story or the administration members who don’t exactly want you to cover that story, you learn how to work with people. Not to mention that you’re on a staff with anywhere from 10 to 50 other people. You have to learn to coordinate if you’re working with someone on a story or if you need a photographer to take a picture for you. One way or another, you will get better at working with people.

2. It’s something new.

I think that a lot of people get stuck in the rut of high school. We get way too comfortable in our everyday routines. For me, that meant playing sports, doing my homework and occasionally trying to see my friends. But when I decided to take an intro to journalism class my freshman year, I was thrown into something new. It challenged me; it made me look at the school and people around me in a new light. I got to meet and interact with so many people whose paths I would never have crossed without our school’s newspaper. It took me out of my comfort zone and for the better. By my senior year, my hour in Stampede became the highlight of my day.

3. The people on staff rock.

Honestly, some of my all-time favorite memories of the time I spent in school are from my days in the Stampede room. It was such a great group of people who enjoyed picking on each other, making way (and I mean WAY) too many political jokes, and having a conversation outside of the topics that included their weekend plans and who was dating who. To this day, some of my good friends are people I was on staff with.

4. The teacher or advisor probably rocks even more.

My experience with high school journalism would not have been what it was without such an amazing teacher and advisor. She was invested in developing kids not only as writers but people as well. Not to mention that she just got it. She understood that we all had crazy busy lives and while demanding, she was never unreasonable. By far, she was one of my favorite teachers from my time in high school. And being a part of the newspaper gave me the opportunity to get to meet such an awesome person.

5. It’s competitive.

I hate losing. It’s borderline unhealthy at times how badly I want to do well and succeed. And you wouldn’t think so, but the high school journalism world is competitive. Every year, my school’s newspaper as a whole, as well as standout individual articles and photographs, were entered into MIPA’s (Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) competition. And oh boy did we pride ourselves on winning the top award, the Spartan Award. Every year only the top newspapers in all of Michigan were awarded this prestige and it always meant so much to

our staff when we got to see our hard work pay off. Every year we were competing for that award and it is such a rewarding feeling to hear your name called as a winner.

6. You get to learn about so many interesting kids and faculty members.

All I can say is, holy wow there are so many kids out there with such amazing stories. I had the chance to meet so many of them and hear their stories. It was so cool to hear about kids who had started their own bands or teachers with crazy hobbies. It just goes to show you that there are cool people in the often mundane and unoriginal world of teenagers.