Home to many Upper School publications, Convent of the Sacred Heart puts students at the helm of six writing enterprises. King Street Chronicle, Voices, Perspectives, Tête-à-Tête, and Dragon Times are the Upper School student-run publications with viewership both inside and outside of the Sacred Heart community.
The student editors make decisions about the page layout, and writing and art pieces within each publication.
Perspectives is a magazine that features student submitted artwork, photography, and written pieces. Editors-in-Chief seniors Caroline Geithner and Avery Juan review the submitted pieces, and ultimately decide which articles and artwork make it into the magazine.
“As Editors-in-Chief, Avery and I organize weekly meetings and oversee the process of compiling, editing, and constructing the magazine,” co-Editor-in-Chief Caroline Geithner said. “We dedicate most of our time to helping the writing staff read, edit, and select a range of pieces for the publication.”

Perspectives has received 10 awards since 2011, including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Silver Medal, Silver Crown, and Gold Medal.

Student writers and staff members work behind-the-scenes to make, collect, and prepare the pieces.

Founders and Co-Editors-in-Chief of the Dragon Times, senior Georgina Cahill and junior Fiona Cahill, created the newspaper last year to broaden the knowledge of Chinese culture and language within the school community. They both write articles, and translate and edit the ten staff writers’ work.

“Our journalists have complete autonomy when it comes to their articles and art they submit.  We have topics ranging from famous Chinese landmarks to American pop culture this year,” Georgina said.  “We think it is important that the articles come from student perspectives as it makes the pieces and their topics more accessible to other students.  We focus on what we think would be interesting to write so that it is also interesting to read.”

Madame Kathryn Cooley, Upper School World Language Teacher, moderates Sacred Heart’s French newspaper, Tête-à-Tête, the Upper Schools’ only French publication for over 40 years. Members of the club and French students contribute pieces that Editor-in-Chief, junior Lindsay Ofori, publishes.

Voices, Sacred Heart’s world language magazine, showcases writing from students in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Latin, as well as student artwork. Editor-in-Chief, senior Victoria Paternina recognizes the importance of giving student writers, editors, and artists the spotlight in Upper School publications.

“It is important that this is a student-run magazine because it shows what the school is capable of teaching students and how we take what we learn from the classroom and implement that into the magazine,” Victoria said.

CSPA has rewarded Voices six gold medals and one silver medal since 2016.

Adult supervisors, Upper School Spanish Teacher, Señora Monserrat Garcia, and Upper School World Languages Chair and Spanish Teacher Señora Renee Rodriguez try to let the students take control and are usually only involved in the final editing process.
“We let them take control because it really is about the student. They are the ones that are learning from the experience and we try to help them develop their leadership and problem solving skills,” Señora Rodriguez said.