Joseph D. Allaire Supplementary Application Materials

D.O.B. 1/22/1993

1

Organization Building

“Renaissance of the Little Hoya”

The Challenge:

When I entered high school I wanted to pursue my interest in writing and publishing. I picked up the first issue of the school newspaper, The Little Hoya, in November of my freshman year and was surprised to discover that the page I was holding was not a misplaced insert to the newspaper but rather the entire publication. The one-sided sheet included only two articles. The staff box housed a total of five names, including the two senior editors-in-chief. When I attended my first staff meeting, only one of the three staff members showed up.

My first writing assignment was a review of a recently released, popular movie. I turned in the assignment early. The article appeared exactly as I had written it in the next issue of the paper -- two months later and long after the movie had ceased being shown in theaters. I learned that the paper had no formal publication schedule or editing process.

The situation for The Little Hoya was as follows:

The only experienced editors were graduating.

The remaining staff was almost non-existent.

Editorial content was made up on the fly with no regular, recurring departments or features.

No publishing schedule existed.

The paper’s design and layout were tired.

No formal editing process was in place.

Nevertheless, I kept writing and began to plan for the future…….

Joseph D. Allaire Supplementary Application Materials

D.O.B. 1/22/1993

2

The Response:

At the end of that first year, I enlisted another freshman interested in publishing and together we approached the faculty moderator of The Little Hoya with a written plan to bring the newspaper into a new “Golden Age.” We congratulated ourselves on our salesmanship when we were appointed the new editors-in-chief -- the only sophomore editors-in-chief in the history of The Little Hoya. But our pride was short-lived when we learned that as of that moment we were the only members of the paper’s staff.

Facing a greater task than perhaps any previous editors-in-chief of The Little Hoya, that summer I created a road map to renew the publication, called the “Renaissance Plan.” The challenge of developing the paper and its staff was greater than I had anticipated. Unlike most high schools in our area, our school did not have a journalism class from which to draw motivated and articulate writers, and the English Department would not give any class or grade credit to students who contributed to the paper.

Despite the challenges, during that first year we succeeding in achieving many of the objectives of the Renaissance Plan, including:

recruiting staff writers and editors -- initially from our friend groups and later through widespread promotional efforts on campus;

setting up a hierarchy of section editors responsible for recurring departments;

organizing regular editorial meetings to brainstorm article and department ideas;

redesigning the paper and learning how to use the program InDesign;

Creating a formal publication schedule; and

Establishing a formal editing process

The first issue of the renewed Little Hoya was published in October 2009. The paper had 12 pages with contributions from 15 writers and editors.

The “Renaissance” had begun.

Joseph D. Allaire Supplementary Application Materials

D.O.B. 1/22/1993

3

Summary of Accomplishments

Little Hoya Pre- Renaissance

Little Hoya Post- Renaissance

Editorial Staff Members

5-6

20-25

# of Issues Per Year 5 6

Average Pages Per Issue 2 12 Total Pages Per Year 9 72

Regular Departments

Sports Arts & Entertainment

Commentary

Campus News

Pop Culture

Special Features