Patriot Pages coming back next year

PACE — In a large classroom at the east end of the high school, the student staff of the Liberator yearbook and Patriot Pages celebrates finishing the yearbook on deadline.

This year, advisors Monica Bondurant and Celene Sessions added an online extension of the yearbook called Patriot Pages for the students to work on. The online extension is a news, feature and information based webpage that caters to Pace High School students.

"We wanted to have a more current journalism project going on since the yearbook only comes out once a year," wrote Bondurant in an email.

Hannah Zagar and Asha Waters have been friends since middle school and now they are co-editors of Patriot Pages.

"Yearbook is 100 times better when you're doing it with your best friend," said Waters.

Zagar and Waters have editorial control of the Patriot Pages, but final approval for postings go through the advisors, Zagar says. Waters said story ideas can come from writers or editors but they have to have something to do with being a Patriot.

Waters said each student brings their own personality to a story.

"I like writing about what you don't know about a person," Waters said.

"I like touchy feely kind of stuff," Zagar says.

Then there are students like Haley Bondurant who wants to be a sports photographer but understands the importance of being a well-rounded journalist.

"I stepped out of my comfort zone this year," Haley Bondurant says of her writing.

Caleb Confusione, a senior, says he has loved writing since middle school. Confusione wrote for Patriot Pages at Sessions' suggestion.

"This year really brought out that passion for me," Confusione said about writing. He now has his own blog.

Zagar and Waters have been in yearbook all four years of high school. Waters will attend the University of Central Florida and hopes to stay in writing in some fashion she said. Zagar is staying close to home, attending the University of West Florida.

Besides news and feature stories, the Patriot Pages has polls, yearbook information, advertisements and scrolling sports scores. For more information go to: https://phspatriotpages.com/

As the school year nears the end, Sessions says the Patriot Pages will be back next year.

"We have had a very good response from faculty and the community," she said.