HVRHS students bring back student newspaper

HVRHS students bring back student newspaper

From left, Ibby Sadeh, Anna Gillette, Nathan Miller, Maddy Johnson and Caitlin Hanlon proof the pages of HVRHS Today at the Lakeville Journal office while Shanaya Duprey teleconferences in on Thursday, May 29.

James H. Clark

FALLS VILLAGE — Students from Housatonic Valley Regional High School wrote and produced the inaugural edition of HVRHS Today, a new student newspaper which can be found on pages A5-8 this week and online.

This work is part of a new student journalism initiative of The Lakeville Journal and is supported by Funds of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and the 21st Century Fund for HVRHS.

This week’s issue of HVRHS Today marks the first student-led journalism effort at the high school in several years.

“We launched this program because we believe in the power of local journalism to connect our communities and amplify student voices,” said James Clark, CEO/Publisher of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News.

“We’ve long been committed to supporting the next generation of journalists through our competitive summer internship program. But with this new high school initiative, students are reporting for their own newspaper in print and online — giving them a platform and a voice in their own community.”

Anna Gillette, Mia DiRocco, Shanaya Duprey, Madelyn Johnson and Ibby Sadeh formed the first group of students behind HVRHS Today.

They got to work just before spring break, meeting for the first time as a team at the Lakeville Journal office in Falls Village on Wednesday, April 9. That afternoon, the team hit the ground running throwing out ideas for their first reporting projects and discussing the basics of gathering news and reporting facts.

In the following weeks, the students gathered weekly every Thursday at the Lakeville Journal office to discuss interviewing, writing and reporting and plan their coverage for the paper. The students took the lead at every turn, choosing which topics they would like to cover and deciding what sources were best for each story.

The six-week program that ran from early April to the end of the 2025 school year served as an introduction to a more regular program expected to begin in the fall. Starting at the beginning of the next semester, another group of students will assemble to produce two more sections.

The collection of work ranges from reporting on the boons of the new tennis courts to HVRHS’s Sondheim Award winner, with a brief stop in Europe along the way.

To learn more about The Lakeville Journal’s education programs, go to www.lakevillejournal.com or email publisher@lakevillejournal.com

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less