Although many students enjoyed the feeling of the Pilgrim Perspective in hand, as of this year, it is an online paper. Photo by: Michaela Moreno
By Michaela Moreno
Just last year, hard copies of the Pilgrim Perspective were being passed out among the student body. Now, with the paperless policy and the rise of technology, the Pilgrim Perspective is only available online.
In 2010 and the previous years before that, the Pilgrim Perspective was completely on paper. The questionnaires that students and faculty answered were printed off on paper and handed out. The paper itself was paper and involved “quite a bit of work” according to senior Matthew Libersky, co-editor of the Pilgrim Perspective, especially in the laying out of the paper, which involved using the Adobe InDesign application. Then it would be taken to the printing press and stapled together. After the printing process of the Pilgrim Perspective, the paper was distributed by members of journalism during SRT or lunch to the school population.
Today, however, much has changed for the Pilgrim Perspective. It is now online. The questionnaires that were once handed out are now sent through Google Docs. And after members of the journalism class have written their articles and they have been edited, it can be uploaded to the site in a matter of minutes, leaving Plymouth High School with a new variety of stories to read every week, rather than being handed out every couple of weeks.
Freshman Cheyenne Himes prefers a hard copy to read because she does not have to worry about loading the paper. Junior Hayley Long is all for the hard copy as well. She likes to have the Pilgrim Perspective in her hands so she can always keep it. Junior Maiyah Czarnecki said she would choose a hard copy of the Pilgrim Perspective over the online version because the online version gives her a headache. Sadly for students like Czarnecki, the journalism class is no longer publishing hard copies of the Pilgrim Perspective.
Senior Samantha Hellinga is okay with both the hard copy version of the Pilgrim Perspective and the online version. With the paper version she was not sure what to do with it when she was done reading it. “I didn’t want to just throw it away, but I had no reason to keep it,” said Hellinga. Hellinga enjoys reading the Pilgrim Perspective online because it is organized and she can leave comments. The one thing she dislikes about the online paper is that there are no “Hot Seat” articles. Sophomore Gianella Cerriteno and freshman Kirsten Pressler both prefer the Pilgrim Perspective online. Cerriteno chose the online version over the paper copy because “it doesn’t kill trees.” Pressler chose the online version as well because she can not get paper cuts by reading the paper online. And according to Pressler, she often gets paper cuts no matter what she reads.
At the beginning of each trimesters, journalism students brainstorm ideas for the Pilgrim Perspective. It is, however, nice to hear some fresh ideas from the school population. Hellinga for example, thinks that the paper, “should do a story on just one person once or twice a month.” Hellinga believes that these stories should involve interesting facts about these people that others might not know about. Cerriteno, on the other had, feels that the paper should write more on choir and sports events. On the topic of what the Pilgrim Perspective should write about, Pressler said, “Art! And also, different responses from the students about different issues in today’s society.”
The transition of the Pilgrim Perspective from paper to a website has had many effects. This includes less readers among the school population. Himes, who heard about the Pilgrim Perspective through her yearbook teacher, thinks there should be a bigger deal made about it, signs, PTV announcements, and all. Hellinga heard about the online paper from getting questionnaires and being in it. She believes the paper would get more readers if the “Hot Seat” was brought back. Czarnecki and Long both believe that the Pilgrim Perspective should go back to being hard copies, from handing them out in homeroom to having a newsstand in the cafeteria.
“I got interviewed one time about my writing and it made me feel like I was actually apart of the school,” said Czarnecki. And that is exactly what the Pilgrim Perspective sets out to do. To be informative and bring the school population together.
The online Pilgrim Perspective is made up of the collaboration of all journalism staff members in varying grades. Photo by: Michaela Moreno