Publications
Sion's nationally recognized publications program teaches real world print and digital publishing skills using modern professional editing programs. Students practice and attend classes in the iMac lab, mastering Adobe Creative Suite programs such as:
- InDesign
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Premiere Pro
- Lightroom.
Through a tailored curriculum, students focus on photography composition and mechanics, principles of design, typography, storytelling, interviewing, and the mechanics of publication production. Journalists in this track will learn to cover stories at our school, in our greater community, and in the world. Our students learn the skills of reporting, writing, editing, photography, page layout and design, as well as the legal and ethical aspects of journalism.
Students staffing one of our two award-winning publications, Le Flambeau (Yearbook) and Le Journal (Newsmagazine), will develop leadership skills while working on a true newsroom-style team of peer editors.
Equipment:
Available for students in this line of study is access to our state of the art equipment:
- iMac Computer Lab, or the "Publications Lab," which has 21 computers updated with the latest Adobe Suite programs
- 20 Canon Rebel DSLR cameras with various lens sets
- 3 heavy duty fluid-head professional tripods
- 6 wireless and 2 wired lavalier microphones
- iPad ProCreate program
- GoPro Hero 7
Courses:
- Graphic Design
- Digital Storytelling
- Digital Design
- Yearbook (Le Flambeau)
- Newsmagazine (Le Journal)
*Students interested in staffing a publication must complete at least Graphic Design and go through an application process
J-Orgs:
Le Flambeau and Le Journal belong to several student journalism organizations, including the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), the Missouri Interscholastic Journalism Association (MIJA) and the Journalism Educators of Metro Kansas City (JEMKC)
Distinguished Awards:
- Le Flambeau:
- Walsworth Printing Company's Gallery of Excellence for the last five years running
- NSPA All-American ranking with four marks of distinction for the 2020-2021 book, How We Do It
- 10th Place Best of Show with the 2021-2022 book IRL at the NSPA Fall Convention for Books Ranging 223-278 Pages
- NSPA First Class ranking with three marks of distinction for the 2021-2022 book IRL
- 4-time winner of the NSPA Pacemaker - the highest honor for NSPA student press awards
- Le Journal:
- NSPA First Class ranking for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years,
- 1st Place Best of Show at NSPA Fall Convention for their September Issue submission
- Pacemaker Winner
- Le Journal Live:
- NSPA First Class ranking with one mark of distinction for Design & Navigation in the 2021-2022 school year
- Pacemaker Winner
Appearances:
- Check out our printed publications of Le Journal, published 6 times a year (three in the fall and three in the spring) on our Issuu page.
- Visit our news website, Le Journal Live, updated almost daily between September and May with news stories, features, op/eds, sports updates, blogs, vlogs and more.
- Check out our Instagram pages @lejournalsion and @leflambeau_sion
- Our yearbook, Le Flambeau or "The Torch" in French, is a fall delivery book that is passed out in August to returning and recently graduated students. It can be purchased online at our store page hosted by Walsworth Yearbooks.
