From Giant Peach Gazette to Shark Scholar: the story of our paper

Just like any other typical day at SMIC-I, all of the students in school were doing their own thing–some working hard on an assignment and others having fun with their friends. What nobody knew was that, in the shadows, something tremendous was happening in the computer room upstairs on the second floor. A small group of passionate students, who were interested in journalistic writing, gathered up and decided to challenge themselves by creating what is now the journalism team.

This was the beginning of our school newspaper, and it was called the Giant Peach Gazette (see featured image).  It’s true.

In order to get a better grasp of SMIC-I’s journalism history, Ms. Aiwei, MHS librarian since August 2002, was interviewed and asked about what she remembers. “Joshua Shen, [the] seventh grade English teacher [at the time], came the same year as I [did]. Joshua Shen [was] the one who [organized] MHS students to form Journalism Club and published the first issue of the school newspaper. The first issue was published in 2003 (the second semester of the academic year 2002-2003.) At that time, [the] school did not have [a] budget for this informal student club. The publishing of the school paper was through fundraising among teachers who wanted to support [the] student’s activities.”

There have been many changes throughout the years, such as the name, the length, and the writing style of articles.  In the newspaper’s early years, issues like XinLang Students were only about one or two pieces of papers folded into half. They consisted of articles that were usually very short in length. However, as time passed, several different journalism teams had found different ways improve the quality of the school newspaper.

The first few issues were also exclusively black-and-white, until April of 2005. This later changed to a more formal and typical newspaper format, with the familiar grayish thin paper, many more pages, and better usage of colors.

When Ms. Aiwei was asked about the changes she’s observed, she replied, “Whenever the adviser changes, the style of the newspaper also [changes]. Different teachers have different ideas about [the] school newspaper, and how much guidance and supervision they as adviser shall give to students. Other than that, of course, the name of the paper changed several times, the format and the numbering changed too.”

From the first printed and published Giant Peach in January 17, 2003 (almost 15 years ago!) to the currently online and constantly updated Shark Scholar, this student publication has been there to cover news for its readers, provide a platform for discussion, and promote school spirit.

And hopefully, we’ll be here for many years to come.