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A trio of aspiring young journalists and activists have created an online student newspaper to give their peers the opportunity to practise their writing while discussing the issues they are passionate about.
JCG Year 12 students Imi Dobber (17), Tamsin Hollyman (17) and Kayleigh Lennon (16) created ‘College Cloud’ from scratch at the beginning of the year.
The three friends, who share a joint interest in journalism - Imi completed her Project Trident work experience with Express in 2019 - first discussed the idea of the platform two years ago.
“We started discussing the fact there was not a space for students at JCG to practice our journalistic skills, which is something we were all quite interested in, that’s where the original idea came in,” Tamsin explained.
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“It’s a place made by the students and for the students. We have JCG Live, the magazine sent to parents, but the target audience is not students, and it is not curated by students.
“We wanted College Cloud to be a place for everyone and make it into something that the students want.”
The trio act as co-editors for College Cloud and have so far written a large number of the pieces shared on the platform, but are inviting fellow students to write their own pieces. While the articles will be edited for potential grammar mistakes or any offensive material, Imi, Tamsin and Kayleigh want students to be able to express themselves freely and will make sure the articles “stay as true to the students words as possible”.
“We want students to share what they are passionate about, the causes they are interested in,” Imi explained. “It’s amazing to be able to express how we feel about different things.”
“There are so many big ideas and opinions in the school but there was no space for them to be shared and students did not know how to put them across,” Kayleigh added. "We are so fortunate that we can create a space for them to be shared.”
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Pictured: From environment to mental health, the refugee crisis and teenage life, the articles on College Cloud are varied.
So far, College Cloud’s articles have covered nuanced conversations about growing old, Jeff Bezos and Amazon's practices, as well as the importance of understanding immigration and how to remove the stigma surrounding it.
The site also includes a meme section covering college life as well as current topics. The girls also recently started a teacher interview section to share an insight into the life of the “amazing staff that have done amazing things”.
“We want it to be a space that is politically engaged and asks serious questions but also has lighthearted discussions and memes,” Tamsin explained.
“The more personal articles have gone down really well - it’s quite relatable and quite raw. When students have not read other things on the site, it’s nice for them to see those. It builds up trust.”
“We are trying to be as real as we can and pushing some limits of certain topics,” Kayleigh added. “We have not been told to take anything down but we have had some eyebrows raised.”
The trio, who say they are all considering doing something to do with writing, activism or politics in the future, are hoping College Cloud will encourage their fellow students to want to learn how to articulate their opinions in an engaging way and develop their writing skills.
“There is a lot of noise, especially on social media, and that’s great,” Tamsin said. “We want students to harness that passion and the drive that people have and make sure that it is an open conversation.”
The College Cloud team is looking to share content from more diverse voices and will soon invite Year 11s to become part of the team so that, once they leave next year, another editorial team is ready to take over.
Any current or past students, as well as teachers, can send articles to College Cloud, but the trio are not completely ruling out the idea of sharing ideas from students from other schools or discussing what their opinions are on certain issues in the future.
For now, though, they are focusing on JCG student content “to get people feeling like they have a community to share ideas with”, Imi said.
The reception has so far been positive. The girls’ families have been impressed by the quality of the writing, while the teachers have enjoyed reading about the girls’ opinions and interests.
Carl Howarth, the school’s principal, congratulated his students on the launch of the student-designed and curated online space, describing their achievements as “very impressive”.
“It is an important vehicle for our students to share views, develop opinions and initiate opportunities for robust debate of divergent views,” he added. “Our students are passionate about making the world better. Having a voice and being heard are the first steps to achieving that.”
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