Newspaper (Sandburg Aquila)
My freshman year I participated in Marching Band, The Marching Eagles. It required a significant amount of my time. Due to my academic schedule and all the other activities/clubs I wanted to participate in, I decided that I would drop Marching Band and stay with Pep Band (Boys Basketball's band).
What does this have to do with newspaper you might ask, well that left room in my schedule for another activity. I chose to join the school newspaper my sophomore year. In particular, writing reviews of video games, another hobby I am passionate about.
So I started on the school newspaper, called the Aquila, my Sophomore year writing reviews of video games. That first year I won a Blue Ribbon award from the Northern Illinois Scholastic Press Association (NISPA) for my review on Rock Band 2. I was eventually made Editor for the Entertainment section, have attended workshops on layout and writing, and even won a second award from NISPA in 2010.
Below you can find links to PDF documents of most of my newspaper articles. While the majority are on video games, I have done a few on non-video game articles like my Holiday Gift Guide and my article on Lost (the TV show).
Sophomore Year (2008-2009)
- Rock Band 2 Preview (09/2008) (NISPA Award 2009)
- XBox System Update (11/2008)
- Lord of the Rings: Conquest Review (01/2009)
- Halo Wars Review (03/2009)
Junior Year (2009-2010)
- Beatles Rockband Review (10/2009) (NISPA Award 2010)
- Uncharted 2 Review (11/2009)
- Holiday Gift Guide (12/2009)
- Lost Final Season (01/2010)
- Mass Effect 2 Review (02/2010)
- Bioshock 2 Review (04/2010)
Senior Year (2010-2011)