The Hallmanac is Dana Hall’s online student-produced newsource, which means Dana’s very own student population writes and tells news through their lenses as students–not teachers, parents, coaches, etc. These student writers are not confined to a certain classroom, club, or leadership position; as the newspaper is meant to be shared with the entire community, so is the role in presenting articles of interest among students.

Hallmanac is an ever-growing endeavor to report news and other Dana-related stories as students continue to join and write more articles of their own. This year, the Hallmanac leaders are we, Grace Wang ‘19 and Sarah Syed ‘20, and serve as the co-editors. As leaders, we proofread others’ articles, facilitate club meetings, and advertise our articles for maximum readership. After taking the journalism class (which is a minor) with the Hallmanac faculty advisor, Ms. Derezinski, we employed various journalistic methods to bring what we learn to the newspaper, and were inspired to lead the newspaper with our new-found knowledge and interest in writing and reporting.

Ultimately, our mission as an online newspaper source and an integral part of connecting the Dana community is to share ideas that range from Dana news, feature and straight, and national current events. As editors, we interview people on campus that are knowledgeable about reported issues, write about various topics that students are interested in reporting or discussing, and learn about journalistic styles and techniques of writing. We are interested in transforming the Hallmanac into a more hard-hitting newspaper that discusses issues students are passionate about, reports on campus events with more nuance, and writes in more versatile ways that add more interest and edge to the paper to attract more readers and writers.

A new school year comes with new goals and plans. For the 2018-2019 school year, some of our main goals for the Hallmanac include to increase participation and interest in club meetings, encourage students to share their ideas and thoughts, ensure that students don’t feel overwhelmed by the commitment or workload (it’s a really low-stakes way to voice your opinion!), and enhance our content in a way that more readers will be interested in reading our articles. Aside from this, we also hope to collaborate with Mirage, the arts and literature magazine, as well as other clubs to increase visibility and student participation. We as the Hallmanac editors hope to strive for a better balance between the articles and the visual aspect of the newspaper and encourage everyone to participate without feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

So what kind of students are we looking for? Well, we welcome everyone who is interested in writing (it doesn’t have to be a lot of writing), reporting, journalism, visual art, learning about different cultures, and cookies! So please don’t feel like you have to be a great writer in order to join the club, everyone is welcome and we hope to see you all in the next meeting!