Vista Ridge has a national-award-winning journalism program.

JOIN us!

NAA Foundation research shows students who work on newspaper or yearbook staffs score higher on the ACT and get better grades as college freshmen. Working for student publications looks great on college resumes.

Our skill set transfers to any potential career field.

• work on a deadline

• communicate professionally

• develop leadership skills

• tell compelling stories visually & verbally

• write news, features, sports (don’t worry, this isn’t English essay style)

• use Adobe Photoshop & InDesign

• become involved on campus

• travel to journalism conventions

• have fun while building your college resume

AVAILABLE COURSES

YEARBOOK (Grades 10-12)

The award-winning Lonestar Yearbook staff produces a 280-page yearbook that is the only historical record of VRHS for this year and is sold to students, staff and community members.

The Lonestar competes at the state and national level and is ranked as one of the top yearbooks in the United States!

Students on staff are responsible for all aspects of the publication, including design, photography, writing and editing and business practices. This course is photography driven with emphasis on writing captions and feature stories.

This is a time intensive course that requires multiple outside of school events per six weeks.

How do I get signed up? Taking journalism or photojournalism is a great place to start. Students enrolled in journalism or photojournalism will have preference for admission, but it is not a mandatory prerequisite.

Students must fill out a student interest survey and take part in an interview with the editors and adviser.

Click here for awards and accolades by The Lonestar Yearbook Staff.

NEWS MEDIA (Grades 10-12)

The Word News Media Staff (may be listed in course catalog as news paper) is responsible for running our campus news website, VRHSWORD.com and producing a print issue of The Word each semester.

Staffers pitch story ideas covering campus events, student spotlights and features, sports along with arts and entertainment.

Students will become experts in interviewing, journalistic writing (don't worry, it's not English-essay style), photography, caption writing and even podcasting.

This is less time intensive than yearbook due to the nature of print vs. online deadlines, but still requires attendance at outside of class events.

How do I get signed up? Taking journalism or photojournalism is a great place to start. Students enrolled in journalism or photojournalism will have preference for admission, but it is not a mandatory prerequisite.

Students must fill out a student interest survey and take part in an interview with the editors and adviser.

PHOTOJOURNALISM (Grades 10-12)

Photojournalism is all-digital photography class. class. In photojournalism, you will document stories through the camera lens. In a nutshell, you will take photos and interview people. This is a comprehensive course where we will study the basic principles of photography and apply them to visual storytelling.

You'll learn...Camera Basics & Operation, Composition, Interviewing & Caption Writing, Lighting & Exposure, Digital Darkroom & Photoshop, History of Camera / Photography, Photo Ethics

Students will complete class projects, as well as take photos at school events, and have the opportunity to be published in the yearbook or newspaper.

Students must have a desire to practice their photography skills outside of class time. We have daily assignments, but most photos are taken on your own time. This class is not as time intensive as yearbook or newspaper.

You do not have to have your own camera to be in this class, but must sign a camera contract at the beginning of the year taking responsibility for all cameras in their possession throughout the year.

How do I get signed up? Students must fill out a student interest survey.

Journalism (Grades 9-11)

Journalism is not just the barrage of depressing stories you hear on the news. Yes, that’s part of it, but it’s storytelling. As journalists, we document events, we inform and we tell the stories of all sorts of people. Journalism is storytelling, with words and pictures.

This is a comprehensive course where students will study the basic principles of scholastic journalism.

A few topics include: interviewing skills; news, feature, sports and opinion writing; editing and AP style; headline and caption writing; design elements; typography; publication production; journalism history/First Amendment.

In addition, you will have the opportunity to have your stories posted on the online news media website, The Word www.vrhsword.com.

Interested in applying for news media or yearbook staff?

Complete a student interest survey and interview with Ms. Ray and editors for an opportunity to join staff!