Editing, Leadership and Team Building
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Alexa Young, CA
Learning to Lead
If you’d asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,
6-year-old me would’ve said, “the boss.”
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Next, I’d throw out a hundred other things: an author, a
journalist, and — during one very brief week — an astronaut.
Whatever it was that I wanted to be, being a leader was
always at my core.
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Growing up, I watched the way my older sister rallied the three
of us behind her. The few times I got to visit my father’s work, I
was in awe at the way he answered every question without
taking a breath. My favorite books captivated me as I watched
characters come up with a plan and step up.
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Over the last decade and a half, I poured everything I had into
learning what kind of leader I could be.
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I learned from long conversations with family, friends and
mentors. I learned from 14-hour shifts at Chick-Fil-A, being
told to "trust [my] judgment." I learned from teaching 20 toddlers
every week about what it means to love your neighbor, and from
cheering on teammates at every "St Andrew Students" event I
could make it to. I learned from sitting down with brilliant minds
and heartbroken people, unable to ever express just how brave
they were for telling their story.
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​But, most of all, I learned from the various positions I was able to hold on the staff of my school’s newspaper, “The Hawk Eye.”
I spent the first semester admiring the managing editor at the time, who was everywhere anyone needed her to be. As I stepped into the role of entertainment editor for the following school year, I got to watch one of my friends grow as editor-in-chief. The next year, as managing editor, “The Hawk Eye” officially took over every part of my soul. ​Not only did I want to grow as a journalist, but I wanted to be like the leaders who meant everything to me. I wanted to watch our newspaper grow and help reporters find their voices. Even if it meant letting my own accomplishments take the backseat during class, I would give everything to be half of what others were to me. Lunches became impromptu meetings with my adviser and editors. Fridays led to late nights at my computer, editing stories and calling reporters who were still up. Sleepovers with my best friend became brainstorming sessions for what else we could fix.
Being a leader isn’t about making everything perfect — a fact I still struggle to remember — but it’s about trying as hard as you can. As my story persists, my hope is to continue leading through every little thing I do.
I teach the staff about the best things to look for as a peer editor during one of the impromptu training sessions my managinig editor and I host throughout the year. This was right after announcements, where we asked the class to explain things they look for as editors and added in our own key mistakes to watch out for. We specifically covered this staff-wide after getting feedback from a handful of reporters that they only knew how to edit for grammatical errors.
Putting the Editor in EIC
The first time I ever opened up a Google document to edit a story, I was lost. I didn't know the structure I was supposed to look for, and, in my mind, AP was a class -- not a stylebook I'd begin to memorize. The next day, I had to send my own story through the editing chain. By the time it got to the managing editor, the story had been highlighted green and yellow, but was ten times better than before.
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From there, I studied the styles of some of my favorite editors: What did they look for? What did they fix? What should I work on most?
When I edited future stories, I tried to do what they did. I looked for the same AP style rules, and thought about wordiness more than I ever had before. The next three years, I continued to edit stories by taking account of what previous editors looked for. I also tried not to make all the edits harsh --- I wanted to help the reader understand that this was to help them grow, and highlight the good parts of their stories. Editing is among the most important parts of my job; the quality of current stories is important, but helping student journalists grow will always be most vital.
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What do I look for?
When I first began to edit stories --- often, as a peer and the first one to see the draft --- I looked for grammar. It had been something I fell in love with when I was younger, so correcting each bit of punctuation was natural and easy.
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Three years later, as editor-in-chief, I rarely get outrageous punctuation errors. Each story goes through three prior editors, which does not leave me a lot of room to correct the basic grammar of sentences. Instead, I began to look for things that others wouldn't notice, commenting on each one in different severities: how opinionated something might sound, the wordiness, if the two clauses correlates, pacing and, of course, AP Style.
How do I edit?
It is objectively hard not to be intimidating when you're editing a story. Whether it was when I was a reporter or an editor, I would get anxious the moment I saw my screen highlighted with comments or riddled with corrections.
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Now in higher positions of power, I try my best not to make someone else as intimidated as I was. When I make a comment, I try to highlight just one word at the end of the sentence to make it appear less daunting. I also try to leave as many encouraging comments --- lines I love, good word choices and jokes. I may not be helping a reporter in person, but I can still appear more human than just the edits I leave in green.
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When more serious changes need to be made, I leave a comment explaining it, but always offer to help them in class or over the phone if the reporter is confused or if they just don't know how to fix the edits. Leaving suggestions is important to the story, but making sure the reporter understands each one is the only way to ensure the publication itself grows.
New Ideas
Nothing is as important to being a good leader as bringing new ides to the table. It is the only way to ensure growth, and, even in the best publications, there is always something to fix. After only one semester in the class, walking into my sophomore year as the entertainment editor, I didn't know half the amount I thought I did. I understood how to write the basic stories, but I had no clue that there were any issues in our publication. I had even less knowledge on how to fix them. Learning under our editor-in-chief that year, I began to understand the scope of what being a leader truly meant. As I continued pursuing journalism throughout the next three years, I made it my mission to come up with any idea possible that could benefit the publication.
Newspaper Resources
Hawks Uncovered
Word Cemetery
When I first joined "The Hawk Eye," no one knew how to find resources. The editors made announcements every day to check a new item they put in "Newspaper Resources," but among the lists of documents, slideshows and spreadsheets, the items blended together. Going into my junior year, my adviser reached out to me to see if I would be willing to organize the folder.
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I jumped at the chance.
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Above, I created a video walking through "Newspaper Resources, which has become the go-to spot for any resource a reporter might need.
After attending a convention in San Antonio the fall of my sophomore year, one class remained engraved in my mind: David Knight's session regarding "After the sky fell" by Brady Dennis.
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As a long-term fan of all things literary, seeing a writing style that strayed from the quote/transition formula was a breath of fresh air. A few weeks later, trying to figure out how to break the language gap between our head janitor and I, I remembered my trip.
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The next day, I pitched my idea to our editor-in-chief at the time: a series just like the one I studied in San Antonio. We worked out the kinks of such a thing, and, a few weeks later, the first "Hawks Uncovered" officially got posted to the website.
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Above, I created a video showing the series on "The Hawk Eye."
Editing every story that goes out on "The Hawk Eye" taught me a lot, but, more than anything, it taught me the importance of simplifying the job. I kept seeing the same mistakes over and over again. Reporters used the same phrases enough that hearing them outside of the classroom drove me crazy.
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If there was one thing I knew, it was that there had to be an easier way to mass-edit the simple errors.
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So, the summer going into my junior year, when I learned about a "Word Cemetery" at Gloria Shields, I knew "The Hawk Eye" had to have one.
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From there, it's spiraled into a class-wide thing. At the beginning of the year, we come up with words to put in the Word Cemetery. We add to it throughout the year.
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Above, I shared an overview on how the word cemetery is used in our editing and why certain phrases found a home up there.
My Leadership Style
My leadership style doesn't belong to me. It's a collage of all the great editors and leaders I've been able to work under and side-by-side. I edit the same way my first managing editor did. I befriend staff members the same way one of my editor-in-chiefs taught me to. I explain the details the same way I do at Chick-Fil-A --- the same way I learned when I was a trainee in the middle of a lunch rush. These are the pieces of leadership that have always helped me, and what I try to adapt the most when working with my peers.
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But, in the end, "my" leadership style comes down to the same three things all the great leaders I know have done: delegating, holding meetings, and leading by example.
Delegating
Meetings
"By Example"
More than I ever planned, I hold meetings.
Sometimes, they're quick --- just a "pop into the back room" and a brief discussion about whatever small problem we have. Most of the time, it comes after texts and calls with my managing editor, followed by a chat with our adviser. Then we talk to whoever we feel we should --- all putting our heads together to figure out the next solutions.
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Other times, it's much longer. We have weekly editor meetings that consist of combatting simple problems and coming up with new ideas to fix the larger issues. We also discuss the good parts: what have we seen that's going well? How can we reward that or show our gratitude?
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Finally, we hold one-on-three meetings. These are a part of a much more daunting process of finding time that the back room is open long enough to hold five-to-ten minute talks with every staff member. My adviser, managing editor and I sit down to discuss what has been going well, provide feedback and ask for anything we can do to help.
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These meetings are important because it provides a time for us to give and get feedback, along with any chance for someone to talk to us when we're not busy --- a fairly rare occasion whenever deadlines are approaching.
It has always been my biggest priority to make sure I exceeded every expectation I set for staff members --- if I didn't, I had no right to ask them to do the same.
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If I made a rule, I tried my best to never break it. Everyone runs into issues with a deadline as some point, but I'll stay up to finish transcribing and meet the expectation I set for myself.
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Everyone has different circumstances; I remind myself of this, too. The expectations I set for the staff overall are much simpler --- three stories in three weeks --- and the individual expectations differ by person, title and desire to do more.
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Leading by example is something I have always sought to do. If I ask someone to push something through the editing chain quickly, it means I'll edit on my 15 minute break that night. If I ask someone to contact sources by the end of the day, I help them draft the email. Whatever I ask, whatever my reporters have to do, I make sure it is a reasonable goal. If I can't do it, it's unfair to ask anyone else to. ​
Delegating is the hardest part of leadership, because it goes against my very nature.
Growing up in a family of six, if I wanted something done, I would often do it myself. It was one of the few ways I could ensure something came out just like I wanted; if it didn't, at least I knew that there was nothing I could've done to make it better.
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Becoming managing editor, and later editor-in-chief, that way of life was unreasonable. I was staying up too late, trying to do all the things I promised I could. Between two jobs, an internship, UIL practices and my role for "The Hawk Eye," all the little things began to add up.
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I was forced to delegate, which has become one of the most important parts of my job.
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Not only can I ensure all the things that need to be done are being done, but I can focus more on the parts that I still do. This also has given me the chance to help younger reporters take on leadership roles before they earn a title; they can be learn a little bit more about what goes into being a leader and I'll leave the staff in a little more rounded staff.
Start-of-Year Staff Training
The first two weeks of the school year are always the most boring.
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It comes with being on staff for so long, and being flung-first into pitching my second day. My fingers itch to write a story the moment I step into the building, and the first two weeks feel like torture when we have two slideshows a day. But, in the past three end-of-year editor meetings designed to fix our start of the year training, our one goal is to stay away from being boring.
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This goal has come with an influx of successes and negatives. Each presentation presented its own problems, and mapping out a calendar grew difficult. We needed to make sure new staff members had time to get to know the environment and grow comfortable with each other and ourselves; we also had to make sure they were taught as much as possible. We have two weeks before we begin writing --- we wanted to use every day to the best of our ability, but we also understood how difficult it is to retain a lot of information in a little bit of time.
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Our plan came through a lot of trial and error, but this year was the best start-of-year training yet. Below, I outlined just how we did that.
This is the training calendar I made for the 2024-2025 school year. I modeled it off of the same one that the editor-in-chief of my sophomore year made, because the system is easiest to use. The managing editor and I can go through and check all of the links are up-to-date and edit the slideshows, my adviser can pull up each slideshow to airplay much easier and we have an organized plan for each day.
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We begin working on this calendar at the end of every year, a few weeks after we learn the editor team for the upcoming year. The idea of what we have to teach remains consistent: an overview of newspaper, the staff manual, journalism skills and a refresher on the different types of stories that come with each section.
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Something I began the previous year was get-to-know-you activities to start each day. We ask a different editor to come up with some sort of game and link a respective slideshow to get staff members to interact with each other. This does two things to break the ice: helps us get to know the reporters but also introduces other editors, who, in large part, don't present until the next week.
My Slideshows:
Here are a few of the slideshows I made and presented for the first two weeks of the school year.
Spring Staff Training
I sat with my editing team, four weeks until Spring break with only two weeks left of our cycle, and I panicked.
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There were a dozen options: We could do a two-week cycle, our cycle could stretch over Spring Break or we could figure something else out. Upon hearing these options, my design editor asked, jokingly, "What would we do then --- newspaper boot camp 2.0?"
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​And so we began a new crusade: Newspaper Boot Camp 2.0, more often referred to as Spring Staff Training.
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The editor team discussed a few different ideas, and I brought them to our adviser. The two of us tweaked the idea until we had something we thought would be beneficial and would be able to be graded in place of a cycle. Then, later that night, I stayed on a call with my managing editor until we had something concrete.
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This year, our annual trip to the ILPC Spring Convention falls on the same weekend as prom; to remedy the gap of how few people are going on the trip, we wanted to mimic it. Two sessions a day, one in the back room and one in Room 1315. Staff members would have the option to attend one of the two classes, taught by the editors, and then complete and turn in an assignment that editor made. The goal was to be detailed and not just tackle basic topics, but to come up with something more --- something even seasoned reporters could learn from.
My managing editor and I spent hours on the phone planning our spring staff training: we polled the staff on what they wanted to learn most about, scrolled through stories to see consistent areas reporters could grow and asked editors what classes they could come up with to teach.
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Each editor sent in three classes. The two of us compared them to what we knew the staff needed to learn, and drafted this calendar.
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We required each editor to come up with an assignment and link it, along with link any document or slideshow they would need. We would offer two classes a day: one in the back room, where we do our interviews, and the other in Room 1315.
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The goal was to give choices, but also to help leaders step up. The editing team is not just the managing editor and editor-in-chief; it is a composition of all the leaders in a publication.
Crafting a Narrative
While writing is something we can always grow in, this class was also a selfish wish of mine. When I attended the Gloria Shields convention the summer of 2023, we were shown what has become one of my favorite pieces of journalism I have ever read: Kent Fuson's "A Stage In Their Lives."
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Since that convention, I have searched every moment of our publication for a reason to show this story. When I pitched a class about crafting a narrative, I did it with an almost-vengeful glee.
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We walked through parts of the story aloud, asking a dozen questions about the simplest things: "Why did he start with 'Spellbound' instead of 'She sits spellbound?" "How did the promises Fuson made make you want to keep reading?" "How did a simple "Hey Ship!' reveal who Mr. Shipton is?"
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Then, we went through how to do that in our own writing. We read Fuson's descriptions and started describing people on staff. The class was a conversation --- one both the staff and I learned from.
Diving Deeper
A good interview makes or breaks a story; of this, there is no doubt. That's what made a class about deeper interviews so imperative during our Spring Staff Training.
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The planning for this class was where the struggle came from. I wanted to show them examples, but I needed a way to interview someone while teaching. When my managing editor offered her own personal experiences as an option​, our plan was formed.
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I started off the class by discussing the importance of good interviews, and highlighting some of my favorite stories I'd read. We talked about what made a moment meaningful and came back to the most powerful weapon a journalist can have: details.
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After that, I began interviewing my managing editor and pointing out what specifically helped lead the interview. After a few questions, I turned it over to the class and had them carry on the interview. It was hands-on learning for a skill we've struggled to teach, and was my favorite class I've taught yet.
Beyond commas and colons
The last class I had to teach was one I really didn't know how to approach. In all honesty, it was one that I didn't want to teach at all, but reporters had been asking for more advice on editing stories for months.
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I was, unfortunately, voluntold.
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Coming up with how to teach editing beyond grammar was difficult, like every other class. When I came up with the idea to use my first ever feature, I thought, for sure, that the idea would be my best yet.
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Then, I reread my first feature and realized that I would have to show it to half the class. I no longer looked forward to presenting.
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When we got to the class, there was a lot of encouragement of youngr reporters because I was editor-in-chief, and my first story was worse than all theirs. We went through, paragraph by paragraph, pointing out mistakes. Then, when we were done, they each went through their own first stories.
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Growing is something that's bound to happen when you're in journalism; your first story will never be as good as your second. But by looking back, not only can you learn journalism principles beyond grammar, you can see how far you've come.
Team Building
Three of "The Hawk Eye" members and I pose with our awards at the TAJE Fall Fiesta Convention in San Antonio. Trips are the things that I can most get comfortable with my staff and grow closer to them outside of strictly-journalism related things.
Room 1315 is like a second home to me. It's the first place I go when I get to school and the last classroom I'm in before I leave. It's the place I head to every time I have no work left in my other class. No matter what time of the school day, there is work I can be doing there and conversations I can make.
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"The Hawk Eye" staff is my second family. When I joined as a freshman, everyone there was like my older sisters and brothers. We made group trips to the cafeteria and they led me through the foreign lines; even if I didn't know anyone else, I knew them, and the seniors welcomed me with open arms every day. My sophomore year, I began to be surrounded by peers in my own age group. Even if I was a title above them, we shared other classes and walked through the same stage of life. The next year, the seniors I had been with for three years and the juniors, who had all become my closest friends, banded together to create the staff I never wanted to leave. Everything we did was grounded in the same promise: we'd be there for each other, whether it was a story to edit or a shoulder to sob on.
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Now, as editor in chief, my roles are reversed. I'm not the little freshman joining a staff years older than me. Instead, I get to be the big sister to all the reporters who joined. I get to go with them to interviews and give them tips whenever they need. On trips, I get to show the the traditions and hang out with reporters I usually only get a handful of hours with. My family might have changed its entire roster from when I first joined, but it still is, and will forever be, my second family.
Staff Bonding
Trips & Conventions
Work Days
One of our biggest selling points is our trips. It's an easy thing that everyone wants to do --- who doesn't love a weekend out of town?
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But, truly, the trips and conventions I've been lucky to attend have benefited me in more ways than attracting reporters.
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Going on trips has taught me the responsibility of being in charge of a group in a large city, along with teaching me all sorts of journalistic advice I don't know how I lived without.
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But, maybe just as importantly, it has given me the chance to grow closer with my staff. On trips, we spend every waking moment together, creating new memories in classes and competitions. It is no longer just two hours that I get to see my staff; it is a weekend of laughter and learning where we all bond over the shared inspiration we could do that, one day.
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Just like the editors before me, I will always be the first to encourage going on trips and attending conventions. Not only does one learn more than they think possible, but they grow closer with the staff until the bus feels just as close to home as a bed.
If staff bondings are to grow closer, "Work Days" are to grow more productive. The idea is by no means a creature of my own creation --- it is something I have learned from far too many classes, conventions and talks with mentors. But, in execution and to Hebron, they are mine.
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It was something I wanted to start my junior year, to give it enough time that I could watch it get its legs out from under me, but amongst all the other changes, this one fell to the 2024-25 school year.
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The idea is simple: one day, once a month, outside of staff bonding, we would gather to work. Sometimes, it is after school; other times, it is the morning we have a day off. Regardless when or where, the function remains the same. Reporters can discuss their stories and share advice, and others can come for a quiet place dedicated to newspaper.
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We have not had many of these, but they have helped. There, I have taught young reporters how to make the calendar dictating when each story goes out, and walked through the stages of deep interviews. It is a learning curve for us all, but that's the whole point of a "Work Night" --- a dedicated space to grow.
When I first stepped into the newspaper room, I was, admittedly, a little nervous. I didn't know what to expect; I was a freshman, and these were seniors. How would we ever be actual friends?
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But, only a few weeks later, the editors told me about the staff bonding they had planned for the month. We would all gather together and go get breakfast. My mentor told me she'd give me a ride.
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Only a third of the staff showed up, but I loved it. It was the first time I had talked to some of the staff members, who I'd grow to see as family a few years later.
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From there, staff bonding has only become more pertinent. It's borderline a requirement for editors if they're in time. It is important to talk to the reporters in ways we might not get to during school, and to take a break from our laptop screens to just exist in each other's company.
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Regardless what we do or who comes, there is the still underlining thrum of family that exists in Room 1315.
Learning from Others
While being a leader comes in large part from helping the people you lead, there was always more to it to me. What I mentioned earlier is an integral part of who I am as a leader: a collage of all the leaders that came from those before me. I learned most things I know about journalism from conversations with my advisor, asking him about every little comment he made in an effort to get better. He taught me even more about leadership, but there's only so much I can learn from one room.
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So, I stepped outside of Room 1315 and began looking.
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I searched for high school internships in the area and contacted local newspapers. One editor was no longer looking for internships, but sat down with me for a few hours to talk about journalism. We went through the work I had done and he gave me pointers, along with walking me through the stories he had worked hard on and how he got certain parts of it. It might not have been a lot, but, by the time I came back to school as managing editor, I had a fresh perspective on the stories I edited and how to find ideas.
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A different magazine reached out to me for a chance to meet and talk more in detail. We went over some of my work samples and some of the magazines, and, a month later, I was officially an intern at Plano Magazine. It wasn't quite a struggle to get used to the writing style of the magazine, but it was not the easiest transition. At school, we use "said;" at the magazine, we use "says." I learned to adapt to longer interviews with less sources and how to be more professional.
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I was never denied for my age, but I still felt like it was something I had to make up for. I was a high school junior talking to people who had been in these positions for a decade; in comparison, I felt much less adequate. So I made sure before every interview that I wore even more professional outfits than I normally did to school and paid attention to every small bit of body language I was possibly sending. This, in turn, helped me in my interviewing. My sources went more in depth with me and shared more than I had previously been getting. I then turned to my reporters and editors and shared with them all the tips I had learned. I went with new and returning reporters alike to different interviews to share feedback or let them see examples of follow ups.
I learned even more about leadership throughout my junior year, when I became a trainer at Chick-Fil-A, and, later, a manager. I was tasked with running shifts of people twice my age and planning ahead for every little detail I could think of. As I continued being a leader in newspaper, my experience at work shifted my angles. I was exposed to different types of people and learned how to navigate relationships with them all.
The type of leader I am is a collage of the leaders who came before me; this much will always be true. But, who I have learned to become is a leader that learned under different journalists outside of school and from jobs that had little to do with journalism entirely.