Since 1924, aspiring journalists have come together to publish the Creek Hilife, delivering news, features, and editorials to keep the school informed. Many of the newspaper’s dedicated writers have pursued careers in journalism and utilize pivotal skills that they learned in in newspaper in everyday life.
The possibility of the school not having a newspaper is now likely, due to the lack of engagement for the newspaper and the class being too small, according to school administrative associate principal.
“The HiLife embodies two very important aspects of Creek: our student voices and our Wildcat history,” Junior Abigail Cook, newspaper staff member said. “Our newspaper exists to bring knowledge to the public, and especially in such a divisive culture right now, newspaper promotes doing your own research and logical lines of thinking. This is very important for students to learn and recognize.”
School spirit is often expressed in terms of activities such as attending football games, wearing school colors, and showing support for the school. However, one important expression that is being overlooked is the school newspaper. Preserving and sharing the news of the school is one of the many ways students show up for their school.
“Working in newspaper really makes me feel more connected to the school because you have to think about what other students may be thinking about.” Senior Fabrizio Pittia, newspaper staff member said. “I also think it’s really cool that you can see what other students were thinking about years ago. I like the idea of an old archive on students’ views on the world, and contributing to it a little.”
The newspaper class doesn’t just benefit the school, but the students too. Over the years, newspaper has become more than just a class to the students. As of the 2024-25 school year, the newspaper class is a close-knit group of five students.
“This class has been an escape from conventional academics for the past four years,” Ameena Khan, editor of the HiLife said. “In newspaper, I am able to freely express my opinions and learn about issues, while being surrounded by like-minded people. I have learned to see multiple perspectives on larger issues, which has led me to develop a thought process that is unbiased and reasonable. None of my other classes, even English-based classes, have given me the insights that newspaper has.”
Beyond just writing articles, newspaper helps students find their own way of life. It becomes an outlet that helps them self-evaluate their own thoughts, identity, and view on the world around them. The class allows them to not only grow as writers, but as people who can navigate the world with confidence and clarity.
“Although I’m a senior, I believe that losing this class would be a significant disadvantage to aspiring journalists, as well as not offering the students to voice certain views that they otherwise wouldn’t have an outlet to express,” Khan said. Newspaper has played a significant role in shaping who I am today over the course of four years and knowing that there are young students who may not have the same advantages that I gained from journalism is disheartening.”
Losing the Advanced Journalism Newspaper class competition team also means a huge loss to The University Interscholastic League, UIL team. Schools across our district compete in the competition annually in many subjects such as math, social studies, debate and other events. With the journalism team having five events for UIL, the team usually brings in a plethora of points which go towards the school’s overall score. It is the newspaper students who compete in these events because they are so specialized, and the ones trained for the contests specific to journalism.
“It’s typically the newspaper students who compete in the UIL tournament, because it is the news students who do the news writing, feature writing, and they know how to write an editorial. News students who are versed in the AP style of editing, which is the standard for journalism. It’s a completely different style than English,” Bridget Robinson, journalism teacher said. “We get UIL points for journalism, and there’s been quite a number of years that we’ve been the top three for journalism in our district. We’ve even won it several years. Our points go to our school’s UIL overall score, and without those journalism points, Creek will lose out on a lot of points.”
The HiLife has always been an important part of the school’s history. The possibility of losing this class would mean leaving behind a valuable platform for student voices, creativity, and the ability to report on the stories that shape the school community. Support the HiLife by joining and spreading the word, in order to ensure its continuation.
