It was a seemingly usual December day when New Tech High @ Coppell freshman Arjun Madhu asked fellow freshman Suraj Swaminathan if he wanted to start a news site for their high school. Only a couple months later, Madhu found himself two new titles: founder and co-editor-in-chief of The Newcomer.
New Tech High @ Coppell launched The Newcomer online on Feb. 21. The site, run by The Newcomer Club, focuses on highlighting the diverse talent of the school.
“We have a really cool and unique student body,” co-editor-in-chief sophomore Olivia Noelle Guerra said. “The Newcomer is to highlight the accomplishments, the ideas and the creativity that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t know about. I know sometimes you put in so much hard work and it just feels like no one notices or knows that it was you, so the goal is to be able to highlight that.”
Madhu went to New Tech graphic design facilitator and now advisor of The Newcomer Manuel Vasquez to start a news site. Little did he know that in just this school year, Vasquez had been asked two times already, one of those by Guerra. And for all of those times, he said no, concerned his background in radio and TV broadcast would not be sufficient for a news site.
But something was different this last time.
“If three people approach you for the same thing, then you need to take it a little bit more seriously,” Vasquez said. “If three people are wanting it, then I wanted to know if more people wanted to be a part of it. It’s three different kids, three different ties and three different stories.”
After the proposal was accepted, Madhu worked on recruiting staff members, bringing Guerra on board. After a month of creating stories in their free time and preparing the website, The Newcomer launched in February for the general public with a total of 12 staff members.
Armed with writers, photographers, graphic designers and even a marketing officer, The Newcomer dabbles in all sorts of journalistic aspects.
“It’s really about expressing ourselves and being able to tell our story and tell others about what we’re interested in,” Madhu said. “For the community, they can learn about New Tech because most people don’t really know much about it.”
New Tech being its own campus and separated from Coppell High School, the student body’s perspective is not often highlighted through media.
“For me it was like, maybe we could do this because CHS students are sharing their stories through The Sidekick and KCBY-TV and the other outlets the district provides, but they’re the ones living it on their campus,” Vasquez said. “There’s a difference whenever you’re telling your own story.”
This being their first year, there’s nowhere to go but up for The Newcomer in the future.
“I just want it to grow,” Guerra said. “I want more people to read it and more people to be interested in it. Hopefully our staff will grow next year so we have people who are interested in all sorts of things to write about.”
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