Whether it is live-streaming prayer services or hosting exchange students, Convent of the Sacred Heart
Greenwich and Convent of the Sacred Heart San Francisco students have a unique connection. Despite the 2,938 mile distance, these two Sacred Heart schools share many similarities, one of which is the ability to communicate news in student-run publications.
Sacred Heart San Francisco’s own school newspaper, The Broadview, is an award-winning online and print publication. Like that of the King Street Chronicle, the staff is comprised of students who write, edit, and publish articles and photos for their respective communities.
As a school located in the heart of San Francisco, California, the students are able to use the city as their informational resource. The Broadview reports on new restaurant openings and local news, including a review of the best cupcakes in town, and an article about how nearby boutiques shifted to ApplePay.
“Because we are in an all-girls school, we try to cater the stories to articles we think that the girls would like to read,” Sacred Heart San Francisco senior and The Broadview Sports & Fitness editor Sarah Selzer said. “The city is always providing us with new stories to cover.”
The paper has five categories of stories, which consist of News, A&E (Arts and Entertainment), Features, Sports & Fitness, and Opinions. To fill a monthly eight-page print edition, writers cover a wide range of topics, from information about school sports, to news beyond the school, like one story about the effects of stress and anxiety. The students also feature a new staff editorial each month in both their digital and paper editions.
Reporters post their own photographs, and one student even publishes a segment of cartoons. These illustrations appear on the paper’s online page and are featured weekly in correspondence with both national and international stories.
Along with members of The Broadview, the Sacred Heart San Francisco community holds its writers’ opinions in high regard. According to Sarah, the staff received the First Amendment Award last year which allows the paper to be published without the school administration’s consideration. Sacred Heart San Francisco is one of six schools in America that was awarded such a title.
“Getting to the point where we were awarded this was really challenging because we always attempt to cover controversial topics regarding politics, religious affairs and anything going on in the world,” Sarah said. “We were able to pull off articles of this type of controversial nature, and this led to the success of our publication.”
According to studentpress.org, The Broadview was also recognized as a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist in the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)’s 2014 competition. The publication was one out of eight student newspapers around the country that was commended for its excellence in the eight-page print category.
The NSPA also praised individual student-writers’ pieces. Several journalists won awards, which totaled to over a dozen, for their columns, editorials and features works, according to sacredsf.org.
To compose this nationally-honored publication, students meet regularly during school hours. The students have a faculty moderator, Ms. Tracy Sena, who oversees all aspects of publication. The staff meets two or three times a week, varying with student schedules. Students can join the class as early as their freshman year. As upperclassmen, the students are placed into the class Journalism II or Journalism III depending on their level of commitment to the course.
Sacred Heart Greenwich junior Lilly Morriss, who went on exchange to Sacred Heart San Francisco in the 2011-2012 school year noticed that despite differences, the fundamental values of both schools remain the same.
“The Goals and Criteria of the Sacred Heart schools are ingrained in the curriculum and encourage students to express themselves through classes like Journalism,” Lilly said.
The Broadview has increased readership through its own personal Instagram and Twitter accounts, which are conveniently linked on the online edition’s homepage. Viewers of the website are also able to visit the print edition from its homepage.
– Sarah Jackmauh, Content Editor