The Making of A Day in the Life at Ranney School

Ranney School received a special delivery from The Asbury Park Press on Friday. More than 800 copies of the November 21st edition of the newspaper were delivered to students throughout the school so that they could read all about “A Day in the Life of Ranney School.”  The special collection of articles and photographs published in the “Jersey Life” section of the paper and online at the Press website were written by and about Ranney Upper School students as part of the paper’s “Day in the Life Of…” or DITLO program. Eleven student journalists and four photographers took part in the two-day program which brought five staff members of The Asbury Park Press to campus on Tuesday, November 11 and transformed the Upper School Computer Lab into a newsroom for the day. Clad in press passes created by Director of Fine Arts Kate Greenberg, and armed with reporter notepads, students Sunanda Sharma ‘10 , Heather Flynn ‘10, Nicole Auletta ‘11, Jackie Korey ‘11, Neha Nayyar ‘12, Sophie Wilkus ‘09, Benjamin Briggs ‘11, Christian Drappi ‘11, Munna Uppal ‘10, Stephen Triano ‘11, Christopher Schwake ‘12, Jesse Feldmus ‘09, Melissa Kowalski ‘11, Alice Lubic, ‘11 and Alec Pflaster ‘11 spent the entire day “in the field,” gathering information for their articles. Their task: to paint a picture of Ranney Upper School. Stories and photos were assigned, written and “filed” in just one day, but the experience did not end with the final bell. The same students, accompanied by Upper School English teacher and The Torch advisor Nicole Martone, journeyed to The Press’ Neptune offices on Thursday, November 13, to meet with the editorial staff, tour the facility, listen to presentations from special beat reporters and make final edits to their stories.

"This has been a tremendously successful program, thanks to the dedication and diligence of schools like Ranney,” said The Press’ night news editor Eric L. Pickney, who coordinated the program. “A major reason for the success of the Asbury Park Press' program conducted at Ranney can be attributed to a professional, intelligent student body and educator Nicole Martone, who enthusiastically set her students on a course of learning the journalistic process before we even set foot in the school. I hope all the schools that participate in this program moving forward are as eager, thorough and passionate as Ranney."

The program gave the student participants a rare glimpse into the lives of professional journalists and photographers, but it also broadened the perspective of every Ranney student and teacher touched by the day’s events. In a special Ranney Life feature story, Ms. Martone delves deeper into the impact of the program on the Ranney School community.

For additional information on all Ranney School news, please contact the Communications Department at communications@ranneyschool.org.