JAVA

When the journalism insructor approached me as a department chair in 1976, he had the right idea. He wanted to begin a literary/arts magazine for our high school. He wanted me to co-sponsor with him.

What he didn't know was that I had wanted to be in high school journalism, wanted to be on our high school literary magazine staff as a student, needed that mental floss back then, but for various reasons had been denied. Mostly because I hadn't made my ambitions clear to anyone else, including my guidance counselor/friend who placed me in accelerated English III instead.

So what lay dormant for ten years was embraced with new life thanks to the journalism teacher. He left after two years but our magazine flourished for another 21 years until I left. Actually, it still continues at MTVHS.

We really put together a quality product that won quite a few awards over the years. It became a school wide cross curriculum venture when my next co-sponsor was an art teacher. We had art shows for the expressed purpose of the work being published in the magazine.

We had it printed at the school's print shop with student workers helping our school printer, a certified English teacher himself. We did all the work from idea to selling advertising to sales to distribution.

JAVA even got into sponsoring an anti-litter campaign predicated on a New Mexico program called Toss No Mas. We worked with our Dean of Students and watched videos of students in the parking lots who discarded their trash. After they were identified, they were recognized on the public announcements and a drawing was held to award one of them with $100 for not littering.

I miss JAVA. It was aptly named, for it gave me a kick start. A pick me up. I'll tell you how much I liked working with those students on staff: some days I would pass up playing golf to spend some after school time on layout or design issues. The operative word there, of course, is some. But I'm glad it's still going on. Everybody can use a little JAVA.