People often hope to leave a legacy, whether in work, school, or life in general—something they can be remembered by. Hayley Harding, a senior at Ontario High School, achieved this feat by helping revamp the school’s long-lost newspaper, “The Ontario Blade.”
Harding entered her senior year at Ontario as a new student, an often challenging transition to make. However, she soon found her niche when she joined the yearbook staff and became editor-in-chief.
Not long after, the school guidance counselor, aware of her editorial experience at her previous school, approached her to see if she would be willing to help out with another program, the school newspaper, Harding said.
At her prior school in Texas, Harding participated in yearbook and took a photography class. Those classes served as the base for a foundation for journalism.
Bruce Weirich, newspaper advisor, said that he helped revivify the school newspaper, which had not been updated for several years. “In my 33 years at Ontario, I think I can remember just one time of having the newspaper,” Weirich said, “but the teacher who used to run it retired.”
Thus, Weirich was on a mission to help bring the newspaper back to life. Instead of using a more traditional method, he helped create an online publication using a general template in September of 2013.
And when Harding moved to Ontario in October of the same year, she helped revamp the site within about a month, she said. She helped create a new logo, home page design, fonts, and a bullet point and favicon design.
After the design process was complete, however, a new challenge began. “The hardest part was getting started with writing stories,” she said. “A newspaper can be gorgeous, but it’s nothing without the words inside of it.”
Gathering story ideas and writing articles can be challenging for any writer, not to mention one who recently moved and lacked connections with people at the school. “I didn’t know anybody,” she said.
And yet, she powered through and generated content that now fills the publication. It’s hard not to see her name attached to a story.
Some students help provide content to the publication as part of a class assignment, but the majority of the stories, photos, editing, and overall newspaper management are fulfilled by Harding.
Molly Schwall, for example, recently wrote a story about the artwork of fellow student Emily Dinger. Tiffany Toombs wrote about the varisity baseball team. And Harding wrote about seniors receiving their caps and gowns.
Technically, she is helping manage the newspaper as part of an independent studies program with her advisor, Bruce Weirich.
She said that when she first started working on the newspaper, she devoted about seven hours a week on it. With graduation nearing and more classes on her schedule, she currently spends about one to two hours a week on it.
“It’s a pretty big time commitment,” she said.
Fortunately, her efforts are paying off. She said she’s received a lot of positive feedback. “Everyone loves what it’s become,” she commented.
“What Hayley did with the newspaper by meshing everything together and creating a nice, flowing template was tremendous,” Weirich said.
The newspaper features six different categories of articles. Harding said she enjoys writing most about senior happenings. “I love writing the senior stuff because it relates to me,” she said.
In addition to managing both yearbook and newspaper, Harding is also part of National Honor Society.
She hopes to attend S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in the fall to pursue a bachelor’s in journalism. Later, she may earn a master’s in law, she said.
“Overall, [newspaper] has been one of the best experiences of my high school career,” she reflected. “I’m definitely going to remember this.”
“A newspaper can be gorgeous, but it’s nothing without the words inside of it,” said Hayley Harding.
