Throughout the United States and Mississippi, upcoming students are learning many journalistic and media methods, but perhaps very few to the level of how Lafayette High School is developing their students. The school runs their program through the Commodore Media Group, which blends journalism and IMC skills to develop and prepare students for the media world ahead of them.
Loidha Bautista, the program’s adviser, says the program developed into what it is now as a way to bring all student media together under a singular umbrella.
“The Commodore Media Group is a conglomerate,” Bautista said. “We had a newspaper and we had yearbook, and those publications tended to compete with each other a little bit, which is healthy competition, but I really wanted to make sure that we were working together, sharing resources, and coming out of the same room. I didn’t want a divided staff. They’re all working on their own thing, and it’s a much better environment for the kids.”
In setting up her classroom, Bautista set some clear goals for students.
“I think first of all, I wanted to develop something that was more of skills for the workplace first and foremost,” Bautista said. “How to represent your school well and how to do those things. Then we’re going into the journalism aspect of it. These are all the things that you could do with it, and they’re starting to see that. How it’s not a niche kind of thing.”
Speaking of representation, the Commodore doesn’t just play a significant role in covering and promoting Lafayette High School. They cover the whole district.
“My marketing group for the district gets called on numerous times to do videos for the admin or anything else,” Bautista said. “It’s a district wide-level relationship to make sure that if [my students] can do it, they’re going to give them the job, and they’re going to do it well. And that promotes not just the district and the kids, but it promotes education.”
Recently, the Commodore has been specializing in branching out to the local community, finding willing clients to build advertisements on. The students are reaching out and finding suitors in Oxford, as well as the surrounding counties.
“Right now the kids go out into the community and, for example, they’ve been building commercials,” Bautista said. “Oxford is a small town, and you have small businesses that don’t have that kind of huge budget. We have done Grace Heating and Air out of Oakland, so it’s not even in Oxford. Kizer Flooring has reached out as well, and Abbeville Bank is who we are creating a commercial for right now. The kids are beginning to make those connections with local community. They invest in us, and we then build our skills and represent them.”
For the students themselves, there’s been plenty to learn.
“This program is especially unique to all schools, because it really allows us to experience each element of creation,” said Ava May, a junior who serves as lead yearbook editor. “I get to sit at a computer and design a yearbook that comes to life and tells a story. And just being in this classroom with all these creative people really draws out that love for creation and art that so many have.”
For May, it’s not about learning just one thing. It’s about the way all the different elements come together.
“Yearbook is something that’s built up of multiple creative systems,” May said. “You have writing, which I absolutely love. Then there’s photography, and the actual design and theme. Right now I’m creating our cover, and I have to completely design it and hand draw it.”
Morgan Thompson, a junior who works alongside May as a photographer, has taken an appreciation for both the reaction she gets to her photo content as well as the relationship-building the Commodore has allowed for.
“I believe it’s grown because so many more people want to see pictures, and they like to see what I put out of them,” Thompson said. “I think that’s pretty cool how I have built so many relationships with other students, and also through the community with how supportive everyone is.”
This sentiment of relationships was also shared by sophomore livestream executive Ford Atkinson, who believes his communication and leadership skills have risen in the program.
“I have felt I’ve grown leadership because I just love people, I love making everyone feel comfortable in this class,” Atkinson said. “An example I can remember was one girl who was really shy, but by like the end of the semester last year, she came out of her shell and was directing news segments for WLHS11.”
Atkinson added that he plans to use his time learning in Commodore Media for attending college in the future.
“Once I finish school here and graduate, I would like to go to Ole Miss for IMC, or go into education there to teach this field as well,” Atkinson said.
The Commodore Media Group can be found through many media outlets, including their own website, Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and Youtube under WLHS11, where they will be producing content for both the Lafayette School District as well as promotion for local businesses.
