What are the reasons why you joined the student publication?

It was purely for extra-curricular points. I was an honor student since my elementary days and being
competitive was the norm among my fellow classmates back then. Like when you’re there, you have
that privilege or you stand out ganon. Joining there to improve my writing skills or at least be
knowledgeable about pressing issues in the country never entered in my mind. It was purely to gain
something (like medals, certificates, sometimes incentives) without putting much effort. Also, I badly
wanted to experience travelling out of town and be excused to classes to at least destress but since
there were competitions, stressful but memorable experience sya.

What is your expertise in the journalistic writing?

I’d been the editor-in-chief (in name only XD) for three consecutive school years. I was confident in
feature writing, science and technology writing, and digital layout and publishing using Adobe Indesign. I
also did news writing, editorial writing, and copyreading sometimes when needed. I have an almost a
year of experience in broadcasting and radio scriptwriting during my last days in grade school.

What did you get from joining the publication?

I got five chances to compete in the regional level. No chances that I got to compete in the nationals
sadly. But that’s okay. I am still proud and surprised that I won first place in feature writing three
consecutive times in the division level. The same reason applies to why I became editor-in-chief for the
same years. I got to meet popular writers that time such as Eros Atalia, Rhandee Garlitos, Mela Habijan,
etc. I got friends also, especially with my fellow feature writers (I have no idea where are they now).

What are the problems you encountered in the publication?

I have so much to say here but I’ll try to make it brief. I have a lot of regrets to be honest.

Publication advisers were not very hands on to their student writers. Lack of training and dedication to
simply put. I was frustrated that I didn’t get any honest feedback or points of improvement from them.
They were too confident that I could win or earn a place at an instant just because I could win in the
division level.

Due to lack of training and dedication among advisers, some student-writers did lack motivation to push
through. Students were overburdened with school requirements that’s why we’d viewed extra-
curricular activities such as joining student publication as something that would be depressing.

I didn’t get a chance to fully understand issues at hand/focus on pressing concerns. Student publications
must be venues for students to speak up against injustices in the society or at least voicing out their
concerns affecting them and the larger community. We never touched on that. We angled our writings
always on the positive side. I remember having a write-up about K-12 praising it for its promises like jobs
after graduating, less cost, and more opportunities and until now, I feel bad that I wrote that knowing
that these promises never fully came into reality.

Lastly, I observed unfair practices during competitions. Judges that were supposed not to be giving any
training were training some students before the contest. Trained students had the advantage in winning
because they were given tips and tricks. There are plenty of fishy stories in campus journalism but I can
give only a few but reliable one like this.