Harker Journalism staff members and advisers pose for a photo in front of the Quad mural during Editors’ Week. TALON, Humans of Harker, Harker Aquila and Winged Post staff met to bond as a team and prepare their publications for the upcoming school year.

Behind the bylines: Harker journalism staff gears up for year ahead with Editors’ Week

by Kinnera Mulam, Winged Post Co-Editor-in-Chief

August 26, 2023

39 Harker Journalism staff members, Director of Journalism Whitney Huang and Yearbook Adviser Kevin Oliver attended Editors’ Week from Aug. 8-11 in the journalism room to prepare for the 2023-24 school year.

Staff from the four publications — TALON, Humans of Harker, Harker Aquila and the Winged Post — participated in bonding activities such as Wavelength, Human Knot and Guess the Baby as icebreakers to connect after summer break.

Co-Opinions Editors Jessica Wang (11) and Isabella Lo (11) laugh during a staff bonding activity. “The activities have been so fun, and it’s nice to meet everyone again before the school year starts,” Co-News Editor Felix Chen (11) said. (Brandon Zau)

“[Editors’ Week] has been really fantastic,” Co-News Editor Felix Chen (11) said. “The activities have been so fun, and it’s nice to meet everyone again before the school year starts. It’s almost like nothing changed from last year.”

Throughout the week, the staff’s strategic teams set tasks for each day to prepare for the school year ahead. Harker Aquila kicked off its first cycle of the school year on Aug. 4 with photo, article and multimedia assignments for each staff member. The Winged Post team familiarized section editors with new design guidelines and Adobe InDesign, the application used to design pages, in preparation for the first issue of the year released on Friday. Humans of Harker focused on publishing remaining profiles from the class of 2023 and deciding on a theme for the class of 2024’s Humans of Harker magazine, while TALON worked on determining a theme for the 2023-24 yearbook.

“It’s very impressive how fast TALON can create spreads,” TALON Business and Social Media Manager Katie Reed (12) said. “We have crazy spreads coming out very fast, and I remember that last year, it took me a week to get a spread, and it was pretty bad. I’m also just so proud of the juniors because they’ve been doing so great.”

Director of Journalism Whitney Huang advises students on their Editors’ Week storytelling projects. The projects involved visiting local shops and sharing their stories through photos, videos, articles and more. (Brandon Zau)

Students also worked on a storytelling project from Aug. 8-9, in which they visited nearby shops to tell the stories of customers, workers, and the items sold in each location. After photographing and conducting interviews, students presented their projects through various mediums, like videos, articles and digital designs. On the last day of the program, staff members celebrated the end of Editors’ Week through games, food and bonding time.

“My favorite part was definitely the last day,” Harker Aquila Co-Editor-in-Chief Alena Suleiman (12) said. “We had really good donuts and a ton of snacks that all members of the staff brought in. It was a really nice moment of bonding and appreciation for all the work we did over the week.”