The journalism program at Mt. Baker has given eighth-grader Isabell Flores a big boost in confidence.

Flores has always been under pressure to get good academic performance. “My family has a very harsh definition of perfect,” Flores said. “...[which is] having all work and grades up to the highest standard possible for a situation.”

Learning how to improve and gain confidence is why Flores joined journalism at MBMS, where you can be a writer for the Canine Chronicle.

According to Flores, writing for the school newspaper has allowed her to voice herself and better respond to criticism.

“When writing articles, you have to be strong and take criticism,” Flores explained. “It can hurt when you end up on the bottom of the [article success] list, having kids make fun of you and being told to do better when you really did try your best.”

The journalism teacher, Mr. Warring, keeps a list of who wrote the most successful articles after a publication. The higher on the list someone is, the better their article did.

“But I’ve learned to be passionate about what I write, allowing me to learn to take and understand criticism and be more confident,” Flores continued.

Time management is also a useful skill learned onboard the Canine Chronicle staff.

“When deadline day approaches, it can be really stressful especially when you’re procrastinating,” Flores said. “Especially since I do sports, it’s important to start your work early and not wait until the last minute.”

Elaborating on how Flores can manage her time while juggling so many activities at once, her strategy is simple.

“Since I play sports, I do that first and then head home to do my homework,” Flores said.

When asked about the process of choosing article topics in journalism, it seems that Mr. Warring likes to do things digitally.

“We basically create a Google Form where we would choose and suggest things to write about,” Flores explained. “Mr. Warring would be the final decision on what our topics are. Personally, I like to write about sports because that’s what I have experience in and know a lot about it.”

The program seems to be a major part of lifting some of the pressure on Flores to be better socially and academically.

“Journalism has really helped me be more confident and learn how to work more efficiently,” Flores said. “That’s why I joined again this year.”