Martín has led an impressive and fulfilling high school career. He is heavily involved in band, The Axe newspaper, all the while taking multiple AP classes. He is a strong writer, often covering political topics. He plans to go to Illinois Tech, a school that he is happy to report has a school newspaper. 

Q: How has the experience of joining the school newspaper been?

A: I joined in the middle of the year. I definitely felt like an alien in the beginning, but I’ve never had more fun. There’s not lots of other classes where we have the opportunity to just research and write the way we want to. That’s why I was interested in the beginning. I was like, “I need to do this before I graduate, I need to see if I like it, at least,” and I would definitely say that was a good call. 

Q: Do you feel like you’ve made accomplishments in newspaper?

A: Definitely. I started this class in February, and I’ve already had a bunch of articles. I came from nothing in the middle of nowhere, now I’m able to write a lot and help with the website. It’s good work, and I feel good about that. 

Q: In general do you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot in your senior year?

A: Yeah, I made the very “good” decision of signing up for a bunch of AP classes, so I’ve been on the grind for a while. But overall I have very good grades. It’s a lot of work, but I did it. 

Q: Are you looking forward to going out into the world?

A: Definitely. I’m going to college in Chicago. It’s a very exciting, big city, with lots of opportunities. This university does have newspaper, which I’m interested in. 

Q: Are you interested in journalism outside of school?

A: Yeah, I’ve always thought of it as something I could do if I wanted to, but I had a lot of other interests so I pushed it to the side. Now that I’ve tried it, I really like it. It’s definitely something I want to do as much as possible. 

Q: How does it feel to graduate this year?

A: It’s surreal, like it hasn’t kicked in yet. I spent the last four years of my life in this building, not just my classes every day but longer with extra band rehearsals, review sessions, and concerts. It’s like a second home, so just knowing I’m about to leave, it feels like getting told you’ll be missing a leg from now on. Like, what am I supposed to do with that? I’m also happy to get out of here, because I know there’s so much more. 

Q: Do you have a better understanding of the news you read?

A: I’ve learned that sometimes the smallest things take a lot of people. When you’re out and you see a newspaper, you think of it as a small thing. But groups of dozens of people worked tirelessly late into the night to check everything constantly, and there are people with all sorts of skills and jobs who contributed.

Article by Story Frazier-Maskiell