By Jessica Easthope
The Students at St. Luke’s School in Whitestone already have what can’t be taught – they caught the news bug early on.
“People don’t watch the news; some people don’t listen to anything,” said Luciano Amoroso, a 4th grader at St. Luke’s. “They just have their own silly life because nobody would know what is going on. And if you have the news, you will know.”
Amoroso and 5th grader Elizabeth Gilmartin contribute to their school’s newspaper, The St. Luke School Times.
Currents News showed you how their news gathering is growing as they do, but now they’re getting a glimpse into their future journalism careers.
“It was like an opportunity I never thought I would have,” Gilmartin said. “Like being able to come here and draw. Like I always hear about, you know, people like, who get these, like, amazing opportunities. I never thought I’d be one of them.”
Luciano, Elizabeth, and Anthony Rau, the paper’s moderator, met with staff from The Tablet and Currents News to learn how our product works on the page and the screen.
“There are positives and negatives with all the media saturation we have today, but, you know, these children—they get it. They focus on the good news, like we do here at The Tablet, as far as faith goes, and just general outlook on life,” said Mike Gray, editor-in-chief of The Tablet.
Gray walked them through what makes for a great edition. As budding journalists, he was a source of sound advice.
“They’re very inquisitive,” Gray said. “If you don’t ask the questions, you’ll never get the answers. And the more questions you ask, the better answers you get.”
While Amoroso wrote an article for the latest print of The St. Luke’s School Times, Gilmartin is an artist who drew pictures. Sitting down with The Tablet’s lead designer, Faby Rodriguez, was the crash course of her dreams.
“And she was really enthusiastic,” said Faby Rodriguez, the Lead Designer of The Tablet. “You can see the passion. I was really impressed with her.”
Together, they made her ambitions come to life.
“It was fun because she would guide me, like how you do the first basic sketch, and then you go over it, and then you make, like, layers, and then after that, you color it in, and you shade it, And how I get the perfect shading color,” Gilmartin said.
“You’re seeing people walking around with what you created,” Rodriguez said. “And that was just so special, knowing that, like, you did something, and the next day is in people’s hands.”
They’re already aware of the importance of being informed and of how to interpret news from the Catholic perspective.
“I think it’s really cool how everything in someone’s daily life could all go together with your faith,” Gilmartin said. “The Tablet really helps show that.”
“Currents News is better because it’s all together, and there’s really nothing you would miss out [on] as you would hear on at other news stations that are non-Catholic,” Amoroso said.
Though there will undoubtedly be plenty of headlines and deadlines in the future, there is no rush for now.
The journalists of tomorrow are today’s most curious minds.