Park Journal Awarded First Place by the American Scholastic Press Association
Congratulations to the Park Journal, Park’s Upper School academic journal, on receiving first place in the Scholastic Magazine Awards by the American Scholastic Press Association for their Spring 2018 issue! The Journal, which is published twice a year, is a collection of student work consisting of essays, history papers, drawings, paintings, science projects, independent study reports, solutions to math problems, and more. Pieces are nominated by faculty members, and, with the student’s permission, are submitted to a rotating editorial board made up of students and teachers for consideration.
Inspired by the work of his students, Upper School history teacher Daniel Jacoby started the Journal in 2014. “To me, one of the most wonderful things about Park – and one of the most important – is the work that students produce in class,” says Jacoby. “But students usually only see their own work, and teachers only see the work they assign; much of it is not visible. I don’t know what students have created in English, art, math, or science, and the Journal provides an audience for a tiny fraction of that work to everybody. It’s exciting to get of glimpse of what students are doing in other subjects.”
The editorial board, comprising four students and three faculty members, reads through all submissions (which are anonymous to the board), and meet for an afternoon to deliberate. The group discusses and carefully considers each piece, and decides which should be included or not.
The layout and format of the Journal were redesigned for the Spring 2018 issue. “Daniel Jacoby wanted to have a fresh take on the Journal,” says Maeve Thistel, Managing Editor, “so I offered to do my part, and together we thought about how to make the Journal more inviting and interesting to look at. The front cover was looking crowded with so many names and titles, so we decided to use an illustration instead.” In addition to moving the table of contents to an inside page and redesigning the front cover, the Spring 2018 issue includes illustrations by sophomore Parrish André.
This year, more changes are happening. Upper School English teacher Greg Brandt and sophomore Ethan Adler are copyediting the submissions. A Journal staff is being built to take on the responsibilities of the Journal after Thistel graduates this year, and senior Kim Fox was named Art Director, in charge of soliciting illustrations from the whole student body.
“I love working on the Journal because it is so informal, which is something many are often surprised by,” says Thistel.
Pictured below: Advisor Daniel Jacoby, Managing Editor Maeve Thistel ’19, and Art Director Kim Fox ’19.
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