The Joshua High School community once again has its own online newspaper!

The Owl Flight Newspaper made its return in mid-September, and students in Celeste Zachry's class at JHS have been going strong ever since. Her team of 11 students have continued to post news, feature stories, and events from across Joshua High for both print and online after a two-year hiatus due to funding and student scheduling conflicts that gave students less time to commit to the paper.

"We only had two students in that class; which made it very difficult to support a newspaper," said Zachry.

That all changed last spring when Class of 2021 Graduate Allison Geddie was named a State Champion in the UIL Class 5A Editorial Writing contest. Geddie went into the competition as an alternate and brought home the top prize. 

"That brought us a lot of interest in the program and now we have seven students in the class, with four more that participate during RTI time," Zachry said. "This year, we have a brand new staff that has been working diligently to learn the art of newspaper-style writing."

Zachry says that this opportunity will open many new doors for her students.

"According to research done by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, students who are on their high school newspaper or yearbook staff are more likely to earn higher ACT scores, and better grades in both high school and their freshman year of college," Zachry said. "In addition to these wonderful things, I teach my staff to write our paper according to UIL Journalism standards, so it naturally helps them when it comes to competition."

Check out the latest news from the Owl Flight by visiting their website here.