Their Eyes Were Watching Obama

High School Journalists Publish Their Take on Historic Inauguration in Magazine

Student journalists from high schools across Montgomery County are adding their observations and accounts of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president to the volumes of reporting published on the historic event.

The students have produced a magazine that this week joined the dozens of commemorative publications that recorded events on the day that the nation's first African American president took office.

"What We Saw: The Inauguration Through the Eyes of MCPS Student Reporters" is a 16-page, full-color magazine that pulls together the work of journalists from eight county high schools. After a launch party Tuesday, the magazine's official publishing date was yesterday.

The Maryland Department of Education and the governor's office have asked for copies. More than 3,000 were to be printed.

Like their adult counterparts, students spent hours shivering in the cold and maneuvering through the crowds to bring back their personal accounts of the inauguration.

"Having started my Obama coverage at the rally at American University last year, I was no stranger to the crowds, chaos and boatloads of press that I knew Inauguration time would bring," wrote photographer Molly Carey, 17, a senior at Rockville High School, in a note to readers.

"Throughout every event I have covered, my fellow journalists and I have always been the little fish from a high school newspaper swimming in a vast sea of professional reporters.

"Although it is intimidating to have CNN news crews breathing down your neck," she continued, "we never let it affect our task at hand. Although we are young, our inexperience does not show in our work."

The students gathered this month at Rockville High to make the final edits and complete the magazine's design. About a half-dozen students worked at computers, tinkering with headlines and graphics or editing photos.

At one point, Polly Ingram, 17, the magazine's project manager, stood at the front of the room. She walked students through a group critique as they viewed the almost-finished pages on a big screen.

"This is our front page," she said, motioning to the cover graphic: an image of Obama speaking at a lectern. The image is constructed from a photo montage. Designer Dan Nguyen, 18, a Rockville High senior, pulled together 524 of the photos shot by students during the campaign and the inauguration to create the image.

"It's beautiful," someone said softly.