For my final article in the Falcon Press, I want to reflect on the past two years of my time writing for Fitch’s official online newspaper.

In January of 2024 I chose to join the Falcon Press, I had already taken journalism as an elective, and wanted to continue writing. At first, I wanted to stick to news and feature stories, writing about holiday spirit, theater, IB, AI, and debate. These all usually consisted of things that were quite near and relevant to me. I didn’t really branch out at first. In my first year of Falcon Press, from January to June, I accomplished a few important feats. The first was covering the news story about a cyberattack at Fitch in less than 24 hours from the cyberattack happening, which was multiple days before The Day got around to it. Second and third were successful articles, achieving the fastest viewed article of the 2023-2024 school year, and the fifth most viewed article of the year. Overall, I wrote nine articles last year.

Over the summer, I thought more about my involvement in newspaper club, and wanted to do more this year. I set up an interview with Ms. Hodge on vaping, and consistently wrote a variety of articles on different topics, making multiple showcase stories, whether it be the Northern Lights, or the new phone ban. With the Northern Lights story, it was another one where I had the article written and published in less than 24 hours — with higher-quality photos of the Northern Lights that I got from the Mystic Seaport. It was also during this time that I gained social media access as one of the social media managers for the Falcon Press. I worked to expand its following, but with college applications and life getting in the way, I regrettably didn’t end up expanding its reach as much as I would have liked. Overall, I published 12 articles this year (not including this one), on top of all of my obligations with clubs and the IB Diploma Program.

One of my biggest highlights was my article on the ribbon-cutting for the district’s new hydroponics system. For this article, I was on the field interviewing multiple officials, including Dan Gaiewski, a CT State Representative recently elected to the General Assembly.

My biggest accomplishment during my time at the Falcon Press is my opinion articles. Following a recent school shooting, and hearing The Onion’s line about “‘No way to prevent this’, says only nation where this regularly happens, I felt a need to share my beliefs on how the United States can do gun control without impeding the 2nd Amendment. I wrote an empowered and deep article on the contemporary reality of gun violence, and published it to the Falcon Press, only for it to be featured locally as well as online. After contacting The Day about my article, they were willing to publish it as a guest contribution to their online and physical newspaper.

 My other opinion articles, one on immigration and authoritarianism was published as an open letter to US House Representative Joe Courtney, and the other on the systemic reasons behind the loss of the Democratic party in the 2024 election. These articles helped teach me to make my beliefs concise, direct, and powerful, which is an important skill I’m glad to have been taught through this process.

My journey with the Falcon Press has improved my writing skills and ability to concisely express my beliefs. I hope to have a future in policymaking, government, and law, so these skills will be incredibly useful to those ends. I also want to thank Mr. Pecka for always allowing and encouraging me and others to write about what we want. I would not have felt empowered to share my beliefs without that open environment he fostered. Furthermore, this is not the end of my journey in journalism. At Wesleyan next year, I am very interested in joining The Argus, which is Wesleyan’s student-run newspaper. I will use The Argus as a voice to help explore my beliefs, just as I have with The Falcon Press.

Thank you to all who read my articles and shared their feedback and thoughts, and to Mr. Pecka, who has and continues to open doors in journalism for all of his students.

Thank you,

Zerek Laghari