At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, Courier leadership positions were announced, and I was granted the position of Media Director. At first, I honestly didn’t know what I would do in this position. I knew that my job was to spread the news and increase viewership, but I really didn’t know what I would do specifically to expand the platform. A few years ago, due to high costs and a push by the Delbarton community to cut back on environmental waste, the Courier moved from a physical printout to an electronic platform. As a result, over the past few years, viewership had gone down. After further investigation, we realized that people weren’t reading articles as much not because they weren’t enjoying the content, but because many people didn’t know where the Courier was located. Many of the students that were at Delbarton during the time of paper copies had already graduated, and thus the majority of the underclassmen weren’t aware of the online platform.

Over the summer I attended the Notre Dame Summer Scholars camp. At the outset of the camp, the coordinators distributed small note cards containing a snapcode for a campus-wide story. A snapcode is a unique code similar to a QR code that allows anyone with a snapchat to friend a certain account. Once we added the Notre Dame account, we could all add our own pictures and videos to the shared “campus story”. I found this to be an incredibly unique aspect of the camp that really connected people across different academic departments. After discussing with the school administrators, I was permitted to start Delbarton’s first-ever school wide snapchat story. The story was created to further integrate Delbarton’s campus, and give students a platform to share anything they found interesting with their brothers. It was launched the day of the homecoming pep rally, and has been a tremendous success ever since. For about a week, the campus story ran nonstop. Recently, the Courier has changed its format and will launch the story only during specific events. Our most recent event was Halloween, when lots of hilarious videos of the costume contest were uploaded.

In addition to the snapchat story, the Courier also founded its first instagram page. Within just a few short weeks, the account had over 250 followers. Now we post regularly to update the community whenever an article has been released. There are a multitude of future events the Courier has planned, including major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as fun events like spirit week. We may even bring the story on the road to major sporting events and arts festivals. Overall, the future looks promising for the snapchat story and all new forms of Courier news platforms. Make sure to check them out when you have the chance!