By Joan F. Simoneau, Community Reporter
Marlborough – Students interested in art, photography, writing short stories or poetry, and other forms of creative expression are enthusiastically pursuing these interests as members of the Newspaper Club at Marlborough High School (MHS).
Elise Lowe joined the Newspaper Club because she “loves to take pictures and be around people who love to write like me.
“I took pictures for the blog and do so because I feel that most people look at our school and see a boring place, but I see a building with life. Students walk in every day and are happy to see their friends,” she said.
In 2002, in an effort to “go green” the club decided to create a blog and to post original student short stories, poetry, art work and photography online rather than printing paper copies once a year, according to Club Advisor Karen Bento.
“This allows us to publish material in a timely fashion and to be accessible to the Marlborough community. It has met with great success,” she said.
Bento has been the club advisor since 2009 when she first began teaching at Marlborough High.
“At that time, MHS offered journalism and newspaper production courses,” she said. “The classes were large and we printed multiple paper copies of The Panther Tracks that were published throughout the year. Scheduling conflicts and other constraints made offering them challenging and eventually student interest dwindled.”
The club is on an upswing, rejuvenated by a new group of enthusiastic freshmen students who joined in September.
“They have brought with them many great ideas,” said Bento.
They meet every Thursday after school and discuss what topics of interest they would like to pursue.
Hilary Lincoln joined the club because she enjoys writing and art.
“I started working on an article about the importance of fandoms (fan bases) and the arts. I am currently about to begin an article on feminism,” she said. “I love to be creative with my writing and express ideas I am interested in and passionate about.”
Kayla Cook expresses her interest in photography by taking photos of school sports activities. She is currently preparing a group of pictures she took of the soccer team with captions – all of which will be completed very soon and available online. Another club member, Katherine Corbin, is planning to create different forms of art to be displayed.
The Newspaper Club’s blog can be accessed at http://thepanthertracksmhs.weekly.com.