Saturday, September 7, 2024
Co-editors-in-chief, Pardue (left), Whitfield (center) and Mr. Corbett (right)
“You build such a bond with these people,” said Pardue. It’s something you don’t really get out of normal classes.”
Azle High School’s newspaper is helping students discover world of journalism.
The next generation of reporters and news writers is being brought up at Azle High School. The Sting is an Azle High School newspaper published by teacher Neil Corbett’s Printing and Imaging Technology CTE class.
Starting in the 1950s, Azle High School news teams wrote and printed The Stinger, to document and inform their peers on the goings-on of Azle and high school life. The Stinger continued until 2012, when the paper was discontinued. Starting in 2017, Corbett began teaching journalism. In 2018, Corbett brought back the paper, rebranded as The Sting.
Since its revival it’s seen significant growth and achievement under Corbett’s guidance. “I’ve been told by a couple teachers that they’ve been creating assignments based around reading the newspaper,” said Corbett “Getting to hear that is really cool. It’s really nice to see our hard work is going into this and it is being appreciated.”
In 2021, Sting writers Tori Patton, Angel Brown, Emporess Whitfield, and Maryann Matt received an honorable mention from Quill and Scroll, an honor society for high school journalists, for their pandemic coverage series on mental health. Patton has since gone on to study journalism at UNT. Another Sting alumnus, Pierce Loeffelholz, is studying broadcast journalism at Oklahoma University while producing a show for ESPN+, according to Corbett.
Along with the four yearly physical copies of The Sting, students often write new stories for their website https://azlesting.com/. “It takes us a bit longer than (The Azle News) because I only see (the students) for 50 minutes a day,” said Corbett. “For the print edition, we work on stories that are maybe less time sensitive or we try and look as far into the future as we can. Whereas the digital version we can do what’s happening right now as quickly as we can.”
The Sting’s editors-in-chief are seniors, Emporess Whitfield and Arianna Pardue. Whitfield and Pardue both started as freshmen in Corbett’s journalism class, but back then neither could have imagined ending up in the position they now hold. “I took journalism as a pre-req for yearbook,” said Pardue. “I really wanted to do yearbook, and I just kind of fell in love with (journalism).”
Pardue was initially discouraged from writing due to her dyslexia, but with support from Corbett and her classmates, she was able to find an unexpected passion for The Sting.
“It’s so different from writing an essay in English or something, that to me it comes really easily,” said Pardue. “It’s just interesting to see how it all comes together and for me that’s why I like it. I like the process and everything… The variety, you’re not doing one thing always, there’s so many things you can do. You don’t get bored.”
Whitfield was similarly hesitant about joining the newspaper at first but has since completely shifted her view on news media. “As a freshman getting into journalism, I didn’t even know what I was getting into,” said Whitfield. “I watched the news, I read the news, but I didn’t really process it. Now as a senior, as one of the editors-in-chief, I can say that I really developed a passion for writing and for news and now really care about it in a way that I never did before. When I do go read a news story, I analyze it, I’m checking for edits, I’m doing things that I never would have done as a freshman or even cared about.”
Corbett himself has learned almost as much from his students as they have learned from him. “When I started teaching it, I didn’t really know much about journalism,” said Corbett. “I taught myself over the summer before I started teaching it and so that first year, I was learning so much along with the students.”
Pardue and Whitfield both credit Corbett for their growth and success while writing for The Sting. “[Mr. Corbett] is the best teacher that I’ve ever had. He has impacted my learning and education more than anyone has. I am so grateful for him and glad that I decided to take his class. He was the one who helped me join the newspaper. I was not considering joining a newspaper after journalism. I thought that I wasn’t a good enough writer and I thought that it wasn’t for me, but he encouraged me to join and now it is the best thing that I’ve done in my high school career and I’m going to take it with me when I graduate.” Arianna agreed, “(Corbett) is there for you on a-whole-nother level. He puts so much effort in… It’s just a really great environment and one key aspect is because of him.”
The two also credit their classmates for creating a positive, familial environment. “My favorite thing about The Sting is the family type community we have together,” said Whitfield. “If someone’s having a bad day, they’re there for you,” added Pardue. Whitfield and Pardue both agree that being able to inform their peers about current events has been extremely rewarding and has allowed them to get out of their comfort zones and expand their confidence and skillsets.
Pardue hopes to pursue an anthropology-journalism double-major and hopes to get on the writing staff at Oklahoma State University. Whitfield is in pre-med and hopes to use the skills she’s developed at The Sting to possibly try her hand at medical writing in the future.
(The newspaper class) is the highlight of my day, every day,” said Corbett. “(His students) become so passionate, just seeing them grow over the years and become better writers… Every student that I have over multiple years, I love getting to see them grow and change… I love that, that’s why I do this job.”
The next and final edition of The Sting for this semester is set for publication on May 12.
