Swept over with decorations, the walls of the 9000 building’s second floor stood out from its usual uniform look to celebrate Coral Gables Senior High’s Journalism Week. Starting on Tuesday, Feb. 20 and ending off on Friday, Feb. 23, the annual Communication Arts, Film, and Digital Media hallway decorations saw the foot traffic of interested Cavaliers, while Field Day marked a closure to J-Week. Home to Gables’ five publications, students’ creativity and cooperation was showcased on these very hallways throughout the four days of school.
Some publications took inspiration from the structure of their works for their wall adornments. CavsConnect paid a tribute to the fact it is an online news site by creating a computer’s outline out of black tape with a massive screenshot of the site’s main page on center stage. CavsTV had its own wall that similarly was a visual ode to the accessibility of its works. Using paper, they created the visual of a phone on the Instagram page of CavsConnect, on which their photos and daily coverage is published.
The Cavaleon followed through with their annual book’s motifs. With a cutout of an open yearbook at the wall’s base, pictures were pasted above as though they were flowing out of the book. A yearbook classic, the Cavaleon’s seniors were put on display in their own personal superlatives decoration. Catharsis demonstrated their artistry through a painting, as members cross referenced past volumes, featuring the most recent cover pages, with pastel colors and paper butterflies.
“We helped design the wall’s layout, more specifically I helped come up with some of the ideas for the senior superlatives we made. I think something that stuck out for this year’s decorations were how they were interactive, and they tried to engage the viewer or participant. I really think it was a great week for J-Week,” senior Adriaan Guerrero said.
Highlights aimed for a modern design for its personal wall, centering itself around Spotify Wrapped, a global internet sensation that entices many crowds. Dealing with many current news issues and largely focused on its magazine layouts, the students in Highlights put on display the distinctly artistic stylization of its works.
Highlights also worked on the other side of the hallways, where additional posters and decorations were put up. Involving educational layouts alongside interactive games that those roaming the halls could play, this opposite side of the hall built upon the other.
“I was really hyped to prepare our own [decorations] because we could see Highlights’ wall, Cavaleon’s mural, Catharsis’ wall and have a little competition between ourselves, to see who’s was better, even though I think all of them were really nice,” sophomore Paz Chico said.
While the right side centered around the publications themselves, the left wing taught students about citizen journalism and showed different examples of photo journalism.
Students were also welcomed to participate in the mystery game where they could vote for the Gables teacher they thought was the most suspicious based off their picture. Based off the New York Times’ Connections game, Highlights prepared a similar version with journalistic terms for those interested.
Though each publication had its respective area to stand out, CAF&DM was represented entirely as one unit to passersby who were faced with the elaborate decorations, looking at the overarching phrase “J-Week” hung above the hall.
The board of Quill and Scroll, made up of publication members, planned the whole production of the field day on Friday, with the guidance of their sponsor, Ms. Zuniga.
“We had to make sure that all the publications knew what they were supposed to be doing during J-Week. We helped highlights set up the posters and wall decorations, especially by reaching out and coordinating with other publications, seeing as last year Highlights was responsible for most of the decorations. We wanted things to get done in a timely manner, and for our biggest occasion, Field Day, our new board of Quill and Scroll tried something new by planning very ahead of time,” sophomore Adrian Perez said.
Friday closed off J-Week and served as an entertaining afternoon of varied games and friendly competition. Though they will continue to work through different mediums, J-Week fused the publications closer, an opportunity to appreciate Gables’ involvement in the journalism community.
“I think we all tried to help each other in different ways. The publications were working hand in hand to put up all these unique layouts. It’s not all competition, since something you have got to help each other out, and really cherish that friendship. We cherish our wonderful publications and we want us all to prosper, so I think it was a great way to get together and make the school even more beautiful,” senior Adriaan Guerrero said.
