As the crow flies (as too many Montanans like to say) Eastside College Preparatory School and Great Falls High School are only 1,000 miles apart. That’s hardly a pothole on a collegian’s road trip or a family’s summer vacation. Yet, considering their striking differences in circumstance they might as well be as far away as a rocket ride to the moon.

Or at least that is what it appears to be on the surface. A casual observer might be surprised to learn that something like scholastic journalism can link together two schools that seem so different.

Eastside High is in East Palo Alto, Calif., within the Silicon Valley. Though formerly known as the murder capital of America, EPA is a community of around 30,000 people in the midst of a revitalization revolution that includes campaigns for safe neighborhoods, youth programs and improvements in education. It is a community that celebrates its mainly Latino cultural values, yet it struggles with improving its identity. EHS has a student population of about 220 who have chosen to attend this charter public school that requires students to attend from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and boasts a 100 percent college attendance.

To the north, nestled between Indian reservations, the Rocky Mountains and the plains of eastern Montana, is Great Falls, a blue collar community that wraps itself in family values, open space and a modest way of living. It is home to 60,000 people (88.7 percent white non-Hispanic) who work at the nearby Malmstrom Air force Base, one of the five hydroelectric plants, in agriculture or in some manner within the Montana tourism and recreation industry. Central Montana is still a place where neighbors know their neighbors and the crime rate is low, yet there is unemployment and a sizeable number of low-income households due to military downsizing and traditionally low wages of Montana. Great Falls High School, a Title I school, has nearly 1,900 students and nearly two of three go on to four-year universities.

However, this is not a story about inner city versus suburbia. Instead, it is a story of voice and the exclamation of its power.

As adviser of the Eastside Panther, Angela Buenning says she needs to model commitment to the paper and high expectations of herself so her students will follow. “What you expect is what you get. So I have high expectations of them and they then produce high quality work. It is my job to be someone in their life who believes in what they can do.”

Her plan is working. Mayra Cisneros, who will be a senior editor in the fall, says, “We know she cares about us. When we don’t do our work it makes us think about how we are contributing to the stereotype of minorities.”

Adviser of the Great Falls High School Iniwa, Linda Ballew, also stresses high expectations. “I don’t expect them to be perfect, but I do expect them to stretch for excellence and give something unique and creative and do it within the budget.”

Along with excellence, she demands commitment. “I tell them if you take my class it has to be a priority in their life.”

In addition to high expectations, each adviser recognizes the power each of their students hold with the words they write. Buenning says that even if her students do not pursue journalism as a career, this power will go with them into later life. “Their words can impact the student’s life and those around them. They can leave high school with the sense of this power. They learn life skills, leadership, partnership and writing. It makes them care and if you don’t care about anything in life you end up in dead-end jobs.”

Norma Jaimez, 2006 graduate and co-editor, is heading to Yale University in the fall and has already felt the affects of this power. She says she is from a “Machista home where all the attention is on my brother at home, yet newspaper gives me my voice and recognition at home and in school.”

In her address to the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Ballew, the 2005 National Dow Jones Newspaper Teacher of the Year, said she “fell in love with the cadence of words” as a child and that her 30 years of teaching (publications adviser for 25) have centered on helping her students discover the same. Apparently her student Roman Stubbs has heard the calling.

Stubbs, the 2006 Montana Journalist of the Year, quit playing basketball when he recognized journalism was his life. Reflecting on her young protege Ballew said, “He learned to articulate his feelings and passions in a succinct way.” And for that, Stubbs has been recognized with several awards and scholarships.

Both advisers stress to their students that with this power comes responsibility to write ethical stories and to work with the administration. In addition to being a writing coach, Buenning stresses the importance of producing a high quality paper that is ethically written and stretches beyond the borders of her campus, which sometimes lends itself to controversial issues. While not backing down from risky subjects she does give her principal notice of upcoming stories about hot issues. “We don’t have the showdowns that some people have around the country. Bottom line, you can’t antagonize the principal.”

Ballew echoes that idea. “Sometimes when we have something coming out, I’ll go into Dr. Anderson’s office and say, ‘Gosh, we are about to run something that I think you ought to know about.’”

She also says it definitely helps relations when the adviser and his or her students “know sound journalism, put it into practice and communicate to the administration what you are doing based on a solid plan.”

Ballew’s principal Fred Anderson says there is a need for openness between the publication staffs and the administration. “I’d rather have an atmosphere of respect in the school. You have to build it and there needs to be enough integrity on both sides to build the trust.”

Anderson suggests that two questions to gauge the appropriateness of a story when it comes to deciding to run a story or not, are, “How is this going to affect the social conscience of our school and what is the focus or purpose of this story?” He feels that student publications do not have license to offend the atmosphere of respect the school is working to build. Otherwise, he says, the publication becomes no different than a playground bully.

Advisers are open to criticism and controversy every day, but both Buenning and Ballew say the rewards are far greater than the downfalls. Buenning says these rewards are especially crucial to her minority students. “For minority students who are silenced in so many areas of society, this really gives them an opportunity to tell their story and teach our country.”

Ballew’s rush comes from the exciting nature of the job. “I really like involvement--all levels of involvement. This is an exciting job. I don’t have one spare minute in my day. It flies by.”



Kim Lucostic is the adviser of The Sun Journal at Big Sky High School in Missoula, Mont. She has been teaching English and journalism for 16 years in San Diego and in Missoula.