About us

By: Wyatt Steele, Contributing Writer

    The Patriot Press, the journalism class at Westwood High School, is continuing its print publication for the 2025-2026 school year, releasing its first print in October.

   The journalism class was initially an elective, but with Mr. Bonetti’s help, the class now counts as a senior English credit. This is the second year that The Patriot Press has been a Senior English class, yet the 4th year that we’ve been printing, and the third year partnered with The Mining Journal.

    Last year, The Patriot Press published its 29th issue, having released up to 7 in a year. Continuing the trend of publishing 7 issues every year, we will have 36 by the end of this year. This year will be our 6th edition. 

    The class had only 5 students when it started, but has now grown to 19 students, indicating a growing interest in journalism and the media. 

    When the class first started, they would publish every 2 weeks, but when the partnership with The Mining Journal started, they changed to once a month. 

    Mr. Bonetti, who works closely with The Mining Journal, along with two students who go down to The Mining Journal to arrange and format the paper. This year, those students are editor-in-chief, Morgan Hanson, and creative director, Chase Sellnow. The Mining Journal then prints it, and then they will give it to the journalism class to pass out to the student body once a month 

    “The goal of the class is to inspire students to have a voice and be heard within our school and our community,” said Mr. Bonetti. “My hope is the class will continue to grow and find new and exciting ways to share the news.”

    Please consider taking Journalism in your senior year! Build real-world skills and have fun doing it! You don't have to be just a senior to take the class. You can take Journalism as a junior and even as a sophomore, though it will only count as an elective. If you join Journalism in either of those two years, it'll help you be a better journalist in the future if you are to stay in the class. If someone likes it enough, they could do it in college or even as a job. 

    The journalism class hopes to see you join and to see what skills you can bring to the class. You can help spread the news in new or fun ways. You would be able to keep the student body and even the nearby community up to date on events happening or events that have happened in the school.

The Patriot Press, which started as an extracurricular class of five, has grown into a team of 24 students from sophomores to seniors. Working as a team, students write, edit, photograph, and put together a full newspaper. 

Lead by Mr. Jacob Bonetti, who oversees the class, and works in conjunction with The Mining Journal to help the students print the paper started this class in the fall of 2022. With a minor in journalism, Bonetti has a passion for helping students grow as journalists. As well as making the journalism class qualify for a Senior English credit, Bonetti has put a lot of effort and time into making this class possible and accessible to students. 

Head of the journalism team is Chief Editor, Anna Hytinen, and lead Technical Director Chase Sellnow. Hytinen is currently in her third year on the journalism team, and Sellnow is entering his second. 

Senior Writer Gage Stone and Senior Sports Writer Sam LeClair are currently in their second year of writing for the team, making them the most experienced on the writing team.

In addition, there are 20 other student writers who are all rookies on the team.

Entering Volume Five at the beginning of the school year, The Patriot Press has produced 22 issues over the past two and a half years. Starting as printer paper sheets from the business room, The Patriot Press is now printed by The Mining Journal in Marquette on the same paper they print the regular newspapers seen around town. 

Articles published range from sports highlights and local news, to recent activities around the school. The journalism team works hard to produce a paper every month and is always looking for new ideas as to what the readers want to see. 

The Patriot Press recently added a website where you can find digital copies of the publication, as well as old publications and website-only content. Hard copies of The Patriot Press can always be found in the red newspaper box located by the gym entrance near the cafeteria. There are also copies available in the Westwood High School and Aspen Ridge Middle School main offices.