Two years ago Khyati Shah walked into Von Steuben High School for the very first time, a 14-year-old sophomore from Bombay. She knew no one, ached with loneliness, and wondered how she would survive. Journalism saved her.
In many ways the paper reflects both the school’s ethnic diversity and its academic excellence. Enrollment at Von Steuben is controlled by a lottery, weighed to guarantee an almost even mix of blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians. The school ranks fifth in the city in composite ACT scores, third in graduation rate, and second in attendance. The newspaper is lively and well written, and faculty advisor Joan Bjorklund, an English teacher, says she makes no attempt to censor coverage. “It’s the students’ paper,” she says. The latest issue, for instance, features an article by Eulalia De La Rosa on the sexual preference of General Frederick Von Steuben, the revolutionary war hero for whom the school is named.
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Each issue also includes a student survey, the most recent of which reveals that almost 70 percent of respondents believe racism exists at Von. “But over 80 percent said they were not racists,” says Vickie Heller, an editor on this year’s staff. “I guess they’re pointing the finger at everyone else.”
This year’s editors–De La Rosa, Heller, Richard Dang, and Shayma Quraishi–graduate in June; next year Shah will be among six editors running the paper. “I have a lot of ideas for what we can do,” says Shah. “Maybe we should do something on stereotyping. That’s a big problem here. One day I wore shorts and people said, “Hey, how can you do that? You’re Indian.’ They expect me to be like their image of all Indians. They won’t just let me be who I am. They think that all Indians are Muslims or Hindus. I have nothing against Muslims or Hindus, it’s just that I’m not either. My religion is Jainism. You have to accept people for who they are.”
After the seminar they joined the rest of the students for lunch and the awards ceremony. De La Rosa won an award for her article on Baron Von Steuben, though she was temporarily overcome by modesty when it came time to walk to the podium and receive her plaque in front of hundreds of other teenagers.
Last fall Heller took a first step in this direction when she and De La Rosa traveled to New York. It was her first out-of-town trip since she went to New Hampshire for a wedding seven years ago. “It was so exciting,” Heller said. “We walked around the city day and night, and we hung out a lot in Greenwich Village. I’d like to go to college there and be a writer. I keep a diary, and I’m ready to get serious about this.”
