Superintendent’s Spotlight: Andrew Mindes
Warwick Valley High School senior Andrew Mindes is co-editor-in-chief of The Survey, the district’s High School newspaper. Historically a print publication, Andrew has helped lead The Survey into a new era of online publication, keeping his fellow classmates up-to-speed on school news.
Students interested in journalism can begin their studies in Journalism 1. Those who continue into year two, as Andrew has, inherit more involved editorial and leadership roles in producing The Survey.
“I took Journalism 1 last year, which is when you start learning the basics of writing articles,” said Andrew. “This year I began Journalism 2 in September, and I guess my teacher liked what I was doing, because I was promoted to be a co-editor-in-chief in October.”
Andrew said that between the two journalism courses, there are more than 40 students writing and revising pieces to be considered for publication in the newspaper. From that pool, around 20 are included in the current edition of The Survey.
For someone who knew from a young age that he liked journalism, working on the paper has been a culmination of a few of Andrew’s interests so far.
“I always knew I liked journalism, because I’ve always liked to read and have been into writing sports articles,” said Andrew. “A possible career I could see myself doing is to become a sports writer.”
Right now, English and Communications are also among Andrew’s favorite subjects. He’s narrowing his college selection process down to schools that offer programs in both Sports Management and Journalism, and he’d like to major in the prior while minoring in the latter.
The Survey continues to face new challenges this year. How do you get what has typically been a printed newspaper in front of the eyes of all students?
Just like all of the great journalism institutions we know have had to do, you take your content online!
“Converting from print to online, the process was really not that hard,” said Andrew. “I’d had the idea to make an online version in September. I thought, with a lot of students [learning virtually], kids wouldn’t to be able to get the paper as easily.”
Andrew brought the idea up again as the journalism team was putting the finishing touches on its first issue of the 2020-2021 school year, and the went for it. Each edition of The Survey will now live online in a flipbook format.
The digital edition will help meet Andrew’s personal goals for the newspaper for the remainder of the school year.
“To keep the online version of The Survey going,” he said. “With it online, we can get more people in the school to read the paper, and to appreciate the articles that the journalism kids are writing.”
Andrew is glad that The Survey has survived and thrived during the COVID era. The online edition Andrew spearheaded has gotten good traffic, and he and the rest of the team are glad they can get their stories out, make sure people are informed, and give them a place to share their opinions.
“What I think is the most important role of The Survey,” said Andrew, “is that it helps make sure Warwick students have and understand the news about this school community.”
