Although the Stagg Journalism Academy has been in existence only since 2005, the newspaper program at Stagg High School has been strong since the early 1990’s.

Benefits
Awards have been numerous, and you can read about them on the Awards page, but more important, students who come to the journalism program tend to stay — because they learn great skills, because they form great friendships and connections, because they know it is an experience that will benefit them for years to come. (For more about those benefits, check out the Student Testimonials page.)

When it comes to friendships and connections, it should be noted that being part of a program like this makes a high school campus feel a lot smaller and friendlier. Instead of being a school with 2000-plus students, a freshman feels comfortable with a much smaller group.

Electives
The Stagg Journalism Academy is an elective program, meaning that a student can take honors and Advanced Placement core classes or regular mainstream classes. The most important thing to understand is this: Participating in the journalism academy does not lock a student into one schedule with little freedom to breathe.

Can students in this program also participate in the band? choir? drama? MESA? Academic Decathlon? athletics? The answer to all of those questions is yes. Now, a student would not likely be able to participate in several different elective programs at one time. In life and in high school, students need to make choices.

Journalism Kids Do Better
The point is: We think this is a great choice. Because of their diverse real-world experiences, journalism students prepare themselves for success in college as well as success in the workplace. In fact, college professor and researcher Jack Dvorak wrote about that in his book Journalism Kids Do Better!