“As an alumnus of the West Ottawan, I feel extremely grateful for my experience. Taking that class was one of the best decisions I ever made in high school. Writing from a journalist’s perspective helped me see things in a new light. It forced me to see things from multiple different perspectives which really encouraged good writing. Because of that, it helped me become a better writer as a whole. Writing in college became so much easier after writing for the paper. My favorite article that I wrote while in high school was one I actually won a state award for. One of my classmates (TJ Denhof) and I went around Holland to determine what restaurant had the best burger in town. To start we paneled some people to figure out what places were deserving of consideration for this prestigious award. Once we narrowed it down to 5 places we created a rating scale to fairly judge the burgers. We took these rating scales to the places, had the burgers, and made our final assessments. The whole experience was awesome. It honestly felt like we got to be food judges like on Chopped.  Having the opportunity to learn and eventually succeed outside of athletics, which was something I was deeply invested in during high school, was super gratifying. Taking the class showed me that I was more than just an athlete. I could be good at other things besides just sports. My advice to journalists at any point is to go for it. Whatever you are passionate about, write about it. Journalistic writing is best when you write about something you care about or are passionate about. Just go for it,” Instructor Sean Hoey said.