PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Hi! I’m Ruth Weisberg and I am a Senior at Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of The Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida. I major in Communication Arts. I am a third year staffer and second year Website Editor on Dreyfoos’s award winning news magazine, The Muse!
When the publication applications for the sophomore class were issued, I immediately knew that I wanted to be a part of a publication. There were so many to choose from, leading me to reach for help from upperclassmen. After learning how The Muse was like “a close knit family” and how much fun it was, I was sold. During the summer, I constantly searched to see if I had been assigned to The Muse. Finally, there it was; 5th period, journalism 4. I was ecstatic.
It was very nerve wracking walking into my Muse class for the first time, on the first day of school. The room was filled with unfamiliar faces and mostly upperclassmen. I was sitting at a table next to the rest of the website team. Little did I know that I was surrounded by the most supportive people, there for me every step of the way.
I didn’t know exactly what the website team did, but I soon learned that I, along with the two people beside me, were in charge of running the entire website. We upload all web stories, update the school calendar, upload all staff bios, and change any and all website elements. For someone who doesn’t consider herself very “techy,” I was nervous, but excited to learn.
I went from a nervous staffer to a second year Website Editor. I have grown so much over these three years so let's get into detail about the various projects that I have worked on and how they have shaped my current successes, future goals, and the challenges that I have encountered along the way.
The first thing I learned as a sophomore Website Staffer was how to upload a story. I was sitting in a hotel lobby, on a zoom call with my editor. They walked me through every step of uploading a story on “College Fair”, and I left the call wondering how I would ever upload one by myself. A couple of days later, one of the web staffers was absent and I was put to the task of uploading one of her story submissions. I retraced all of the steps that I had gone through while doing my first upload. It went well until it came time to insert the photos.
Now, I have had the chance to be the editor. Last year my staffer was on the website team the previous year, so already knew what I knew. Instead of teaching her, we had the opportunity to work together and collaborate on various projects. We both provide input to changes that we want to make and we talk about them and brainstorm possible plans of action.
A goal of ours was to increase interactivity on our site. We added a custom sports page, Photo of the Week, and a poll to the site. Each of these elements has brought about its own set of challenges, but being able to problem solve as a team has let us learn and become a more knowledgeable website team.
This year, I have a staffer who is newer to the website team. I have shifted into more one-on-one training with him and we have started to utilize Sno Flow’s trainings more to learn about the new elements. It has been our goal to utilize these new elements to improve interactivity, while making the website more visually appealing.
Learning how to operate the website and being in charge of the website is stressful and, at times, I can get discouraged and stressed, but I am learning along the way. I can confidently say that I am nowhere near perfect when operating the website, but I have become more “techy” along the way.
Being a small, but integral part of something much bigger, has taught me patience, collaboration, and determination. All of these uploads have led to my current success, I am adaptable and willing to learn new things. I am a very inquisitive person, always asking questions to educate myself and lead myself to success. All of the life lessons I have learned, and continue to learn, will help me to be successful in the future. I know that these valuable traits and lessons will lead me in the right direction and help me achieve whatever career I choose to pursue.
