When Adrielle McNeal randomly chose to be in the news writing class at the junior high, she never expected to enjoy it as much as she did. So much so that she took Intro to Pub and is one of the Mountain Echo Staff reporters and also a part of Horseshoe Yearbook.
Q: What made you decide to be a reporter for Mountain Echo and Horseshoe?
A:” Whenever eighth grade hit, and we started making our own schedules, I didn’t know what Intro to Publication was. I heard photography, so I put it down, and I ended up enjoying the class. It was a lot to do at first with not knowing how to balance it, especially doing it your freshman year. But then after we finished, and we came around to scheduling again for sophomore year, I decided to do both staffs because I really enjoy photography. Then I also like writing, and you do a lot of writing in both classes. I felt I would be better at keeping photography within yearbook and writing within news.”
Q: How has your experience been working with Mountain Echo and Horseshoe?
A: “It’s been a roller coaster, to say the least, because whenever I first started on both staffs, I didn’t really have a flow on how I did things. And now with Horseshoe, I’m one of the photography editors, and with Echo, I am still a reporter, but a lot of the underclassmen come to me for help and look up to me with questions on how to write certain stories.”
Q: What is your favorite type of story to report for?
A:”It used to be news stories, but this year, I got introduced to photo essays which is a story with nothing but photos. I just write captions for the photos, and we publish that. Mrs. Vanish figured it would be better to try to tie in my yearbook work with news. I’m always doing photo stuff that way.”
Q: If you could be only on Horseshoe or Mountain Echo, which one would you choose, and why?
A:”Horseshoe because I have a really strong passion for photography, and I really like designing the yearbook because you get to show people and display people in the book in different ways that they wouldn’t expect.”
Q: How has being on both staff impacted your life?
A: “Before I joined staff, I had really bad speaking skills. I was terrified to talk to people in person. But now, with being on both staffs and constantly having to interrupt classes and ask to pull students out of the class, I definitely think my speaking has gotten a whole lot better than it was whenever I first started. It definitely helps with your public speaking skills because you’re always interviewing people and pulling quotes and stories and running around.”
Q: If there was something you would want someone to know about you. What would it be and why?
A: “They all say that I’m really happy and hyper all of the time. And I think that might be because I have coffee whenever I’m here, but I’m really quiet and keep to myself. I don’t leave my room a whole lot when I’m not in school.”
Q: What are some of the things that you were involved with at school?
A: “I am in Black Student Union where I am the Social Media Manager and the secretary. I am the girls’ swim team manager. I’m the historian for drama which means I’m in charge of getting all of the photos that we either use for flyers or publish onto social media. I’m in Girls League which we haven’t really done much this year yet, but we normally do Easter for Eli stuff.”
Q: What do you do in your free time when you’re not involved with something at school?
A: “I spend a lot of time babysitting my brother and my aunt and uncle. As odd as that might sound, my aunt is two and my uncle is five, so it’s an odd conversation.”
Q: How are you involved in drama?
A: “So with the drama, I am on stage crew, which means I’m in the wings of the show the entire time, helping sets be moved onto stage and actors change in and out of their costumes if needed. I typically also help build the set and paint the set, because building the sets takes a long time, and most of the time we start making the sets for the current show during the previous so we don’t get too behind. We don’t get rid of anything; we just put it in a giant closet.”
