Diversity in Harrisonburg City Public Schools
The city of Harrisonburg is a particularly diverse part of the state and therefore my school district is as well. HHS is made up of 53.1% Hispanic students, the next largest percentage being white students at 29.6%.
About half of the school system qualifies as economically disadvantaged and around 42% are students learning English for the first time. Virginia Department of Education School Quality Profiles & Enrollment as of February 2023 |
Faced with such a diverse population, HHS Media makes it a goal to cover all people that make up that population and we commit to ensuring our publications reflect what our high school and community looks like.
Best Practices: Diversity
1. Do Not Cover List
One essential tool we start compiling at the beginning of the year and continue adding to is our "Do Not Cover List." We often start it on the whiteboard so we remember to follow it and then turn it into a spreadsheet as it always gets too long. We make it a goal to never cover someone on this list out of laziness or poor planning during deadlines. However, when we do make this mistake, we try to discuss why we made those choices and plan ahead for next time. This list is essential to make a yearbook that everyone wants because it isn't just a book about ten students. In some way, we try to cover every student three times in the course of the book and hopefully in our other publications as well. |
My Staff's Work
My staff has worked really hard to divide and conquer the stories that really tell the diverse stories of our community. Below are just a few of these examples written by my fellow editors.
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Collaboration with Daily News-Record in Covering Diversity
I am also currently working on a piece produced with both the local newspaper, the Daily News-Record, and HHS Media that will cover the countries represented in the high school and what it's like for students to come together under one roof celebrating such differences.
Through the interview process of this piece I have probably gained more knowledge than any other article I've ever written. I had a 30 minute interview with a Puerto Rican student who spoke strongly of the importance of cultural representation and inclusivity in high schools. I also talked with two students, one from South Sudan who later moved to Syria and another from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan who fled with her family to Egypt. Each had important stories to tell that I am excited to share with my school community on newspaper distribution day. |
Making our Publications Accessible
One of our biggest roadblocks has been the price of our yearbook. We can't make the books free, but this year I really wanted to cut the price of our book the most we could in hopes of making it more accessible to our student body.
We ended up being able to cut the price by around $5-10 by spending time working through our budget over our summer workshop which I considered a small win. Our newspaper is probably the most accessible to our school population as they are free and handed out during the school day by our staff. The website and associated social media accounts are a close second. We also provided giveaway opportunities to win a yearbook. Towards the beginning of the year we placed golden tickets under seats in classrooms and included the giveaway information over the announcements to provide more opportunities for students to interact with the yearbook. We also provide teachers with the opportunity of purchasing a yearbook for a less fortunate student or just simply for a student they know had not yet purchased one. |
This Year's Yearbook Theme
This year's yearbook theme, This is Us and Only Us, is dedicated to all the different forms of diversity that present themselves under HHS' roof.
We decided on this theme to get to tell the stories of what makes HHS unique and strike down the stereotypes that surrounding schools have formed of our school. My high school has so many different people, as well as clubs, activities and sports. It is unlike any other with the amount of things students participate in and how these classes or extracurriculars shape their high school experience. For example, the JROTC and STEM programs both are often four year experiences for students and provide opportunities for growth in their position. HHS also has so many opportunities not available to the surrounding schools such as taking courses at the local community college, AP classes, a Fine Arts Academy, etc. |
Part of our design this year includes sidebars with a question based on our theme. We include seven quotes from students answering the question and their pictures. We emphasize to all staffers that when you gather the information for a sidebar, each individual sidebar should represent and reflect what our school population looks like.
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Spreads Within This Theme
1. Quinceaneras
When we began to plan this year's yearbook over the summer we worked to consider and include topics that are impactful to different groups of students. We included a page on quinceaneras as many students throw or attend these celebrations at our high school and to reach a group of students that we may not have otherwise. I worked closely with this spread in the design stage. 2. English Learner (EL) Students As I touched on above, my public school system is made up of around 42% of students learning English for the first time. We also included a spread on these students as they are such a big part of our high school that we also often do not reach. 3. BSU Talent Show HHS holds a big talent show in March every year hosted by the Black Student Union. We always cover this event in the yearbook to give this club and student group more coverage as well. I ended up helping this designer put all of her content into an eye catching spread in the design stage, seen to the right. |