The Lone Wolf newspaper, the student publication of Basic Academy (formerly Basic High School), is the oldest continually operating newspaper in Henderson, Nevada. I had the privilege of serving as its editor-in-chief during my senior year of high school, and later, an even greater privilege when I returned as the adviser. In that role, I taught Journalism I/II and guided students through the entire process of creating the paper.
In 2023, we earned second place for Best High School Newspaper in Southern Nevada, awarded by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That same year, the team won first-place awards for Best Headline, Best Sports Photo, and Best Feature Photo. These achievements were especially meaningful considering where the program started when I stepped in.
When I became the adviser, the journalism program was struggling. The previous adviser had left, and with them, most of the experienced students. I had to rebuild the program from scratch, recruiting a brand-new group of students who didn’t know me and, for the most part, didn’t know much about journalism either. Many of them were learning the basics, from how to use a DSLR camera to navigating Photoshop and Lightroom, for the very first time.
It wasn’t an easy road—there were a lot of long nights at games, endless practice drills, and some frustrating moments staring at editing software—but the results were worth every bit of effort. The students grew into confident, capable journalists, and together, we produced an award-winning publication. For two of our most notable issues, I took the lead on page layout and design, but every decision was made with significant input from the student editors.
The experience wasn’t without challenges, but it was incredibly rewarding to see the students’ hard work pay off in such a big way.
My roles: adviser, page layout and design (below), the Chick-fil-A advertisement (designed by me)
October 2022
