For the last few years, it has been customary for the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of WordsWorth to share a few thoughts about their time in MFS journalism.
Over the past four years, I have seen WordsWorth grow as a news outlet in so many different ways.
As a team of student reporters and editors, we have grown to be a close-knit community of young journalists navigating the world of news, ethics, and fairness. Through holiday parties (not complete without Mrs. Klein’s famous latkes), a host of Slack jokes, difficult conversations about the publication of stories, weird society inductions, failed equipment during live broadcasts, monthly pitch meetings, and the April Fools’ print edition, it has been a highlight of my day to come into Lab 2 (transformed to our “newsroom” during class) and delve into the topics of the day, no matter how silly or serious they might be. WordsWorth journalists know how to be serious, but we also know how to have fun. And we have a lot of it.
The diversity of coverage on WordsWorth also continues to expand, thanks to the reporters on the team who are nearly always willing to ask the questions nobody else wants to ask. In addition to the day-to-day news, I am proud of the in-depth, investigative stories that have allowed WordsWorth to shed a light on issues in our community.
Moreover, in the last four years, WordsWorth has advanced to assume the role of a news organization in the 21st century. In addition to our print editions and blog, WordsWorth is at the cutting edge of multimedia journalism: live broadcasts, 360º videos, podcasts, web-packages, and social media posts. These tools have allowed me to grow as a journalist and as an editor by thinking about how to best tell stories and reach our audience, the Moorestown Friends School community.
WordsWorth, I believe, continues to meet our mission of informing and educating students, faculty, staff, and parents about what is happening in their own community. Our coverage has been tough but fair.
“WordsWorth, I believe, continues to meet our mission of informing and educating students, faculty, staff, and parents about what is happening in their own community. Our coverage has been tough but fair.”
– Andrew Rowan
Many don’t realize that in addition to being a true news outlet, the journalism class is a place for students to be trained and equipped with the fundamentals they need to become real journalists in a real newsroom, even though the class is run by students. I am happy that we still do this each time we welcome a new member to the staff.
I’m grateful to the WordsWorth staff for always being willing to try a new medium and do their best, even if the platform or idea wasn’t fully developed (from podcasts to vertical video). Thank you for doing the difficult job of reporting on your friends and teachers. It’s not easy to balance the role of friend and reporter, but I watch you all do it very well every day.
I’m grateful to the WordsWorth advisors, Mrs. Galler and Ms. Day, for always advocating us—inside and outside of the newsroom—even when we did not know it. Thank you for pushing us to go the extra mile in our reporting. You both always told us to take the time to ask one more source or to make one more call. You were always right, it was always worth it. Ms. Day and Mrs. Galler always backed up their words with their own work ethic, consistently advisor editing articles and helping make difficult ethical decisions late at night, on weekends, on holidays, and even during the summer. We could not have accomplished our goals as an organization without you.
I’m grateful to the Moorestown Friends administration for supporting student journalism by allowing us to publish articles and keep them online, regardless of how unflattering they were. In a private school, student journalists do not have First Amendment rights, but we have been allowed to function as a free press. This has allowed us to grow as an organization and as individual journalists because no topic was off limits for reporting. When issues have arisen, I have grown from subsequent conversations about ethics and standards.
Lastly, I’m grateful to all of the sources for my articles over the last four years. Whether you gave me your reaction to a Dining Hall item, a thought about school security, or tipped me off to something that was about to happen, I am thankful. When one speaks to a journalist, they do not get anything in return. Thank you for giving me your time.
Finally, to our readers, watchers, listeners, and followers, thank you for supporting WordsWorth. As journalists, if our stories aren’t read by anyone, they don’t matter. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to consume our content.
The WordsWorth infrastructure has been here for decades, the equipment will remain in the building, and the next generation of WordsWorth staffers and editors are ready to take the reigns. I can’t wait to see what they will accomplish.
It has been a pleasure to cover the daily happenings of this community for WordsWorth over the last four years. I may be moving on, but WordsWorth is not going anywhere.
If you would like to respond publicly to this editorial, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of WordsWorth or Moorestown Friends School.
