Stories don’t tell themselves. At Madison Country Day School, we wanted a place to tell ours. To tell the stories worth telling, accurately and completely, in the voice of student journalists.
Whether we are reporting on news or culture, sports or arts, we want to ask the right questions and spark discussions about what matters most.
That’s why we founded the first high school newspaper for MCDS, The Prairie Hawk Press.
Student journalism gives us a platform and teaches us to dig deeper. Our goal is to take initiative, investigate and share the news with the whole community.
When students at our school start a club or perform on a state stage, we want to do more than recognize them: We want to report what happened, how they felt and what they hope for next.
As student journalists, we are learning to ask the right questions to lead us to a lede. We are learning to step out of our comfort zones and talk to people we’ve never met. By interviewing sources of all ages, we are becoming better communicators.
We are on a deadline, so it does not matter whether we feel ready; armed with our reporter’s notebooks, we find the courage to get the full story. Without those interviews, we don’t see the whole picture.
Our school is home to people with varying opinions and worldviews. We will work to tell each story from a variety of perspectives and to ask the questions that help us represent all sides of our community.
In a media landscape full of misinformation, student journalism also teaches us to think critically, evaluate sources, question claims and recognize bias. These are skills that extend far beyond the newsroom.
Starting a newspaper in the age of generative artificial intelligence might seem like an odd choice: Couldn’t AI just do all the writing for us?
This is a topic that we, as an editorial board, have discussed a lot. Here’s our pledge:
We hold our journalism to the same standards as our academic classes, meaning we may use AI tools like Grammarly for technical edits, but each of us as journalists stand behind the facts, the quotes and the writing of our bylined pieces.
If we make a mistake, please contact us and we will do our best to fix it. If you have suggestions on how we can do better, please tell us. We are learning, and we want to grow as reporters and writers through this process.
As an IB school, we are encouraged to embody the IB Learner Profile traits. At The Prairie Hawk Press, we are inquirers chasing new stories, risk-takers in our interviews and communicators in our writing.
This is your newspaper, too. If you have a story idea, a suggestion, a correction or a comment, we want to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected]. And if you want to join us, all high school students are welcome.
