A new initiative in North Hollywood High School is granting student classwork and club projects the sort of exposure typical of professional-grade media. The North Hollywood Media Association – familiarly known as “Pub Lab” – was first launched this year with a mission to provide the tools, funding, and training necessary for students to publish their work online for a wider audience.
Essentially, it acts as a support system for all existing publications and projects, such as the yearbook and The Magnitude, a literary magazine. Unlike those publications, however, PubLab packages content instead of creating it.
“This is just our first year of doing it,” said Ms. Underwood, an HGM English teacher and a leading force in PubLab, “so it’s fairly new. And it’s just North Hollywood High School that is testing it out. But all we are doing is looking at a final product and helping you to figure out how to publish it.” In practice, this can be through providing access to publishing materials or the money to get it printed through professional publishing outlets, such as Barnes & Noble.
The funding for this type of support is drawn from a recent grant through LAUSD. Pub Lab has received around 16,000 dollars in funding through LAUSD’s Educational Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP), which offers educational assistance and enrichment programs to schools across LAUSD.
“Right now, we’re using the funding to buy a printing machine to make our published work,” said PubLab representative and HGM junior Yunah Choi. “But we’re also working on more virtual copies, such as videos from, like, TedX, that will be displayed on a website.” So far, PubLab has already succeeded in publishing a collection of poems online from HGM English teacher Ms. Gullo’s class and a cookbook of freshman stories from Ms. Underwood’s class.
However, it has plans to expand even further. In addition to facilitating avenues to publish work, PubLab hosts workshops and seminars to promote awareness, such as a student-led presentation on copyright or a workshop on locating different publishing resources that are available for public use. Plans also exist to provide materials for students interested in creating content, such as podcasts.
“We are purchasing recording equipment and cameras so that students can do podcasts, which is exciting. That’s going to take place in a podcasting station, which will be set up in the library,” said Ms. Underwood. Although there is no official timeline for these programs, PubLab hopes to implement them as soon as possible.
Other potential contributors to PubLab are school clubs, which often create content that would benefit from being published. Each year, PubLab aims to connect with different writing clubs at school, like magazine club The Verge, and elevate their work to a higher level of exposure.
“Right now, I’m working on the Google form for clubs to sign up and get their work published. We’ll likely be publishing on behalf of The Magnitude and some other writing clubs,” said Choi. As PubLab is only in its first year of existence, there is still ample time for these ambitions to materialize.
Whether it’s a collection of poetry, a specialized magazine, or a new podcast, PubLab is open to any student or club with a vision of seeing their work published.
