At the beginning of this school year, there was quite a buzz surrounding Hawk Eye: the online student newspaper of BPHS. However, there has been a steady decline in active members, leaving adviser John Allemang shaking his head.
Last year, Hawk Eye was operated voluntarily by a small group of dedicated, hardworking writers. Everyone did their part to chip in to the newspaper’s initial success. We worked collectively to produce commercials and to market the newspaper as a whole. Our accomplishments were humbling, as we successfully started a newspaper out of nothing. By spring 2012, the site was up and running with plenty of solid content.
The plan for this school year was making Hawk Eye bigger and better. This seemed very plausible in my eyes. At the first meeting, a plethora of new “journalists” piled into the Writing Center, symbolizing the future of Hawk Eye. I could see the hope in Mr. Allemang’s eyes; his child (Hawk Eye) had finally grown up.
There was much enthusiasm in that room, ideas were bouncing off of the walls and it seemed like we really had something special. This was the peak of Hawk Eye, as it all went downhill from that point on.
As the weeks passed, less people showed up for meetings (Mr. Allemang stopped bringing snacks and drinks), and even fewer people were posting any articles. The last meeting, which took place on February 6th, was only attended by a mere three people. This point in time was a low for attendance, as well as an all time low for the enthusiasm of Mr. John Allemang.
“In the beginning of the year I was overjoyed, but now I am distraught and flabbergasted that students would not want to be a part of an award winning online student newspaper, a part of a revolution, a part of history”, he explained.
It seemed like everyone was too busy to make any contribution. Either that or they were too lazy to sit down and write an article that wouldn’t take any longer than an hour or two.
At the beginning of this school year, there was minimal news on the site; it was all old news. Allemang expressed his hatred toward “old news”, and demanded the writing of new articles.
Most of these new articles came from the 9th period Journalism class which Allemang teaches. These hardworking students quietly assemble in room 111 every day from 1:47 to 2:28, with one goal: writing articles.
However, those Journalism students don’t write articles simply because they are required to pass the class, they write the articles because they have a true love of journalism and writing as a whole. They also write articles due to a desire to express their opinions to their peers. And you should too!
Why you ask? Well, why not. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of an online revolution? Moreover, even though Hawk Eye isn’t the Post-Gazette, it is an excellent platform for expressing opinions and creativity as well as reporting the news. Filled with an all-star lineup of high school journalists and an all-star advisor (John Allemang), Hawk Eye has unlimited possibilities. It is up to you, the students of Bethel Park High School, to improve the Website. All you have to do is write!