Lage’s Major Leadership in Journalism

To have a successful journalism program, you need hardworking and dedicated students as well as the knowledge and guidance from a hardworking and dedicated adviser. The program started under Ms. Tracey Burger and has had continuous success under the supervision of Mr. Gabriel Lage. As the sponsor of both the yearbook and newspaper classes, Mr. Lage’s job is far more laborious than you can imagine. His role in the program is certainly what holds the staff together. Without his support and guidance, the journalism classes wouldn’t be as organized as they are and run as smooth as they do.

As for the newspaper, one of his major roles is making sure that new articles and stories are being uploaded on a consistent basis. Mr. Lage has to assure that the staff writers are writing quality stories and are continuously working hard to make sure the newspaper website is updated regularly. He also checks up constantly on the editors to make sure they are doing their jobs by revising the stories and fixing any mistakes.

On the yearbook side, his job is mostly to make sure that everyone is getting along. “My job is basically to keep the peace,” Journalism Sponsor, Mr. Lage said.

The yearbook can be extremely stressful for the staff, especially when it comes to deadlines.  Mr. Lage makes sure that the staff is following what it is they are expected to do and are meeting their deadlines no matter the circumstance. Creating a yearbook can be very demanding when it comes to time limits as well as organization. Organization is far more critical in yearbook when it comes to the content being uploaded.

As the yearbook advisor, Lage is responsible for making sure that the yearbooks are selling as well. “We need to have ad space being sold, so that way we can generate more funds for the future,” Mr. Lage said.

Sponsoring both these programs can be exceptionally stressful in the sense that good quality content is needed for both the yearbooks as well as for the online newspaper. The most difficult task when it comes to the newspaper is making certain that the stories do draw the reader’s attention and that the students get the exposure they deserve for all their hard work.

The yearbook is more demanding for Mr. Lage though due to the fact that they are dealing with a lot of money. Creating yearbooks and going through the process of having an excellent book does cost a sizable amount of money. “The average cost of yearbooks can get anywhere between 40 to 60 thousand dollars,” Mr. Lage said.  Making sure that enough money is being brought in into the program to pay for the books as well as for the preparation of creating future books is extremely important. He explains that the fact that the yearbook generates some of the most money for the school does put a high amount of pressure on him.

Although the job does have its difficult moments, the staff is certainly what helps him get through. The kids are definitely one of his favorite parts of the job. “They make me laugh,” Mr. Lage said happily. He really does care for each one of his yearbook and newspaper students in such a great way. He feels that their hard work should never go unnoticed. Seeing the smile on his student’s faces when they have finally finished something stressful, whether it’s finishing the entire yearbook or writing a complicated news article, definitely makes him happy.

Mr.Lage already has some new interesting ideas for both yearbook and newspaper that he cannot wait to share with his students for next year. Without giving in to the surprise, he stated that one of the ideas he has is to incorporate video into the newspaper website to change it up a bit. His determination for making sure that the classes keep getting better and better each year is truly appreciable.