Adobe software helps award-winning Palo Alto journalism students shine


California’s Palo Alto High School (Paly) has enjoyed a rich legacy of excellence. Influenced by its proximity to Stanford University, the Silicon Valley business community, and San Francisco’s metropolitan culture, Paly has been continually recognized for its exemplary learning environment–particularly in the journalism program.

The largest high school program of its kind in the United States, Paly’s journalism department is a place where students have amazing opportunities to shine. Over the last quarter-century, the Paly journalism department has grown into a full-blown multimedia publishing concern to rival almost any organization, let alone a high school.

It started out as a small program with one six- to eight-page student newspaper. Every time registration swelled in a journalism class, a new one got added to the curriculum to expand areas of publishing interest. Today, the department has grown to include four additional journalism areas–broadcast, magazine, web, and sports.

To meet the demand, the principal increased staffing levels to four full-time journalism teachers. But the real story is how the students are becoming prepared to achieve higher levels of publishing accomplishments by using cutting-edge industry standard tools–which for us means Adobe’s Creative Suite. The suite helps better prepare students for the workplace after they graduate. The programs also offer students a mechanism to be proactive in a creative arena that is socially sanctioned as they move into higher education and career paths. Students engage with Adobe creative tools and technology to publish everything from news, opinions, and lifestyle features to sports analysis and music reviews interchangeably in print, broadcast, and on the web.

Published every three weeks, the Paly newspaper, The Campanile, boasts the greatest longevity of all Paly publications. Originally started in 1918 as a six-page monthly with eight students on staff, it has expanded to more than 26 pages with 70 student staff members who collaborate in integrated Adobe design and publishing workflows.

Most students are new to Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium tools when they start class, but after just a few sessions of basic training, they “get it.” The teachers prefer to front-load the software training process and then reinforce instruction daily in practical situations.

Students use InDesign software to create multi-page layouts, Photoshop software to edit and enhance photos, and Illustrator software to create more complex vector graphics. Students also organize thousands of digital assets using Adobe Bridge, which streamlines the workflow in a highly visual manner.

Following the integrated media approach essential in today’s publishing world, Paly’s journalism program also has moved beyond traditional journalism classes into broadcast journalism. In Focus, the television news station, serves to disseminate campus news and selected features to the school community with professionalism, humor, and unbounded creativity. Among multiple tools, students use Premiere Elements software to digitally edit content for in-depth, web-based video segments. All the student segments are uploaded daily to the program’s web site and streamed.  Also, student teams often create pieces that are regularly uploaded to YouTube.

As the journalism program continued to expand in 1999, Paly’s news and general feature magazine, called Verde, was launched. Verde is produced by students six times a year and showcases features, opinion articles, reviews, and an analysis of news. The first issue, published in 1999 with a team of 20 staff members, was an 80-page quarterly magazine that was received warmly by the campus community and the scholastic journalism community at large. Notably, that first issue won a Pacemaker–one of the two most prestigious awards in scholastic journalism–from the National Scholastic Press Association.

Rounding out Paly’s journalism program is the department’s newest addition, the sports magazine class. The Viking is published six times a year and is available both online and in print. Again, the student workflow includes components of Design Premium similar to The Campanile and Verde.

In today’s world, no program would be complete without web journalism, replete with social connectivity, blogging, and live feeds. The Paly Voice, a web site created using basic HTML and Dreamweaver software, debuted in 2002 with students presenting their own reporting, writing, and photography along with repurposed content from the school’s magazine, newspaper, and broadcast classes. In 2005 the site won two Webby Awards–an Academy Award and a People’s Award. The site serves as a searchable archive of the content from all Paly publications. Students are using Fireworks software to optimize graphics for web presentation, and Flash Professional software to create motion graphics for the web that are viewable with the free Adobe Flash Player.

The students are excited about having the freedom to express themselves in a variety of publications, and this excitement attracts many new students each year. Paly’s journalism teachers have found that Adobe tools and technology help students communicate their ideas effectively. The goal of the journalism program is to give students a proactive, creative outlet that is socially sanctioned and gives them a powerful voice in the community.

Esther Wojcicki teaches journalism at Palo Alto High School.

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