Anaheim Exclusivo Survives Its First Year

It takes some vision to shake things up and take a leap forward.  I don’t know if Roberto Saldivar was thinking of this when he had the idea of creating a bilingual newspaper, but he dreamt it up, and we ran with it.  

I must admit that I was terrified when I was assigned to the task.  I never majored in journalism, and the only experience I came with was that of an English/Spanish teacher.  Though an avid reader, I knew I fell short in many of the areas needed to produce a newspaper that would thrive.  

However, I underestimated the talent that would be my team.  These first-year students of journalism poured their heart into their work.  They worked till late hours to get the website up. We sat for hours figuring out each new piece of equipment and researching rules of AP Style in Spanish.  Each small accomplishment was followed with great excitement.

We learned that failure was a growing pain.  I was rather proud of how each failure was handled — first frustration, and then a reflection of what we had done wrong.  Taking responsibility was difficult, but we all learned to accept it.  

Our bilingual newspaper became a hit with our Spanish speaking parents and our staff that took on the challenge to grow their Spanish.  Thank you, Kathleen Shamrell for being a fan of our Spanish articles.

Our English readers made their support known as well.  Thank you, Ms. Majewski, our students, were always so proud when you commented on their articles. Thank you, ILC, for using our articles in your assignments.  Thank you, City of Anaheim Library Heritage Center of the MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center, for promoting our paper.  

This would not have been possible without the support we received from our community.  Mr. Saldivar, thank you for walking with us every step of the way.  Mr. Matsuda, thank you for recognizing us and giving us financial support.  Al Jabbar, thank you for your continued support and donations.  Thank you to all the anonymous donors who supplied us with equipment.

I will miss this fantastic set of students.  Two of which have decided to major in journalism after their experience here.   I expect nothing but success from each one of them.  AE News Class of 2019, I will forever remember you!

We hope to grow in readership by staying relevant, being just, and of course, always informant.  We hope to become a newspaper AHS is always proud of calling its own. Signing off —-AE News Staff.