Hello, Prospective Staff!
Thank you for choosing to apply for the clay staff! We are so excited to build a team with whom we can represent TPS to our community. We are looking forward to working with you over the coming year.
Please refer to the application below for details on each position and email clayeditor@pottersschool.org with any questions or concerns. Applications are due on July 7, 2023.
Blessings,
Cara Pisani and Isabel Rogers
2023-2024 Senior Editors
A Note to Columnists:
Beginning in August, clay columnists write one 500-700 word article each month and submit it to their editors by the deadlines given. About a week before submission, writers will notify their editors concerning their intended topic. Depending on the column applied for, some articles may require time beyond brainstorming and writing, i.e. conducting interviews or research, so take all time requirements into account. Please don’t limit your applications to the columns we’ve listed. We are always looking for creative new ideas for a column (just include a short description of your plan when you apply). Please specify a single column you want to apply for.
A Note to Editors:
Editor positions are reserved for students in 10th grade or higher with an appreciation for the correct mechanics of the English language and an ability to produce constructive criticism. Editors must have ready access to and availability over email to answer columnists’ questions, receive articles and topics, and send out deadline reminder emails. Please note your preferred section of choice.
A Note to Public Relations Team:
Public Relations applicants can apply through this link. Our Public Relations staff will post on clay’s social media accounts two to three times a week to engage with the TPS community, spread our message, and help us maintain a professional public image. We are looking for a Public Relations Manager, some Content Creators, an Engagement Manager, a few Photographers, a Graphic Designer, and a Student Selection Coordinator. For more information, please see the separate application above.
Have fun applying!
THEOLOGY & WORLDVIEW
Theology & Worldview will include theological discussions, faith-strengthening arguments, and church history. We are excited to see how this column develops this year!
T&W Editor: The T&W editor will organize the following columnists:
Church History: Columns focusing on the historical side of the church from A.D. 50 to the present. This can include abridged biographies of early church leaders or other ideas left to the discretion of the writer. However, a balanced perspective would be necessary for the writer or writers of this section.
Apologetics: “Always be prepared to give an answer,” St. Peter told the church in his first epistle. Those words ring true today. This column is for equipping the saints to that end.
Bible Spotlight: Taking a more heartfelt approach, this column will feature devotions for daily life.
Christian Novella: Just like the Serial Story but from a biblical perspective. Applicants should submit a sample story and an outline of their serial story plan for the September-May issues.
Other: If you have an original idea for a Theology & Worldview column, let us know! We’re always open to suggestions!
NEWS
The News Section will give educated analyses of recent news and cultural events, shedding light on lesser-known events to bring student awareness to current issues. It’s not intended to be a breaking news section, but rather a thoughtful look at the modern world through a Christian worldview.
News Editor: The News editor(s) will organize the following columnists and may help provide article topics for certain columns if necessary:
Political Analysis: This column will take a non-partisan approach to the Western political sphere in a time when the political climate has become increasingly toxic. The writer will follow political trends primarily in the U.S. and other Western nations.
International News: Intended to offer a global perspective, this column gives insight into current affairs around the world.
International Correspondence: This column has a bit more flexibility. It can range from focused news reports to more thoughtful cultural analysis from all over the world.
Science & Technology: This columnist will write engaging articles about the latest innovations in scientific and technological fields.
Other: We’d love to cover other news topics and current events, from engineering to business to sports. If you have an original idea for a News column, let us know!
ARTS & CULTURE
Combining abstract artistic pursuits with art’s technicalities and even some international culture, A&C will be clay’s creative anchor this year.
A&C Editors: The A&C editor(s) will organize the following columnists:
Serial Story: This column features a unique, meaningful novella issued chapter-by-chapter. Applicants with strong creative writing skills should submit a sample story and an outline of their serial story plan for the September-May issues.
Photography: Featuring photographer interviews, technical exposés, and creative inspiration, the photography column will contain a wide range of information for both amateur and experienced TPS photographers. Additionally, the photography columnist will help judge the annual TPS photography competition. Applicants for this column should submit a sample article as well as examples of their own photography.
Fashion: If you have a knack for finding classy clothing, try sharing some tips with your fellow TPSers. Explore the wide variety of topics included in fashion, from girls’ and guys’ clothing to aesthetic theory to fashion history.
Film: From film reviews to analysis to news, the film columnist can cover anything film-related through an insightful, artistic lens. Columnists are encouraged to stick to PG-rated films.
Cooking/Baking: The food columnist writes on delightful dishes and posts recipes for them.
Poetry: This column spotlights a variety of poetry and poets from a variety of literary genres.
Theatre: Covering anything from the latest on Broadway to tips for drama students, the theatre columnist should be aware of current events in the theatre world. Prior stage experience is a plus but not required!
Music: The music columnist has quite a bit of flexibility in covering important events in music news. For example, the death of a famous musician, music awards ceremonies, specific artists or albums, and music history can be covered in this column. The music columnist will also help the Senior Editors host and judge the annual GP7 music competition.
Books: This column consists of book reviews and book-related news, including analyses of recent publications and bestsellers, the-film-versus-the-book, or book recommendations.
Other: Feel free to apply with an original idea for an A&C column!
SPOTLIGHT
We hope to give creative, meaningful insight into the TPS community through the Spotlight Section. Columnists will use their communication skills to interview and research a variety of subjects.
Spotlight Editor: The Spotlight editor will organize the following columnists:
Girls’ Student Spotlight: As the title implies, this female columnist will interview a TPS student every month and write about her life, interests, and personality.
Guys’ Student Spotlight: This column is just like the girls’ spotlight, except for guys.
Alumnus Spotlight: The alumnus columnist interviews a TPSer and writes about his or her life after TPS. This columnist could write about the graduate’s favorite TPS memories, their current and future plans for college and beyond, etc. Contact information for TPS alumni can be provided if necessary.
Teacher Spotlight: The Teacher Spotlight columnist will interview a TPS teacher each month and write about his or her life and experiences with TPS, helping students get to know their instructors a bit more.
Class Spotlight: This column features a wide variety of classes (Literature, Science, etc.) over the course of the year, explaining the syllabus and the learning/teaching style of the class, teacher, etc.
College & Career Spotlight: From tips for winning scholarships to unique and trending careers, this columnist will write insightful, engaging articles to help inform students about their future education. Applicants for this position must be in the 11th grade or higher.
Story Spotlight: Do you have a story that’s your go-to to break the silence in awkward situations? A memory that immediately comes to mind when people ask for your more embarrassing moment? Stories are what make us us, so we want to feature some of the best this year. The story spotlight columnist will go on the hunt for 1-2 really good stories–may they be funny, sad, or serious–each month and share them in their article.
Other: We’d love to hear any original ideas you have for the Spotlight column when you apply!
HUMOR
Everyone needs a good laugh at some point during the long school year, and the Humor section is one of the best places for TPSers to find something to chuckle at. Creative new comedy ideas are welcome!
Humor Editor: The Humor editor will organize the following columnists:
Humor Columnist: If you have a creative idea to brighten a TPSer’s day and a good sense of humor, try sharing it with the whole school through the humor column. For examples of creative humor articles, here’s a link to a humor competition from several years ago (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nckY2ZX61BGIKoVPosM_zI-YZLo6ML1r3fdzjHb_61E/edit?usp=sharing).
Cartoonist: If you have a knack for sketching and making people laugh, you might want to apply as a cartoonist. Instead of writing samples, applicants should submit two cartoon panels and an explanation of their column’s theme or characters.
Satire: We’re looking for a dry, humorless writer who can deliver such poor writing as to make us cry out in agony.
Other: If you have any other ideas for a Humor column, let us know!
OPEN MIC
The Open Mic section gives a voice to all students and alumni who are not full-time columnists with clay. We encourage TPSers to write and submit guest work for clay!
Open Mic Editor: The Open Mic editor(s) will be responsible for managing an email account dedicated to receiving guest work for clay. He or she will edit guest submissions for grammar and clarity and post them on clay after they are received. We are looking for an editor eager to find and showcase new voices and talents on clay.
title goes here
Dear readers of Clay Magazine, I would like to today discuss something tthat you may have seen, which is graffiti. *nods* Everyone always sees graffiti when they are driving their cars on the highway (like me, because I just got my liscense) (merging lanes is rly hard). One day, the gray, dark big tunnels and lanes turn to something different. One morning, a formerly plain bridge before is covered, all the way, from top to bottom, head to toe, front to back, all over, in neon graffiti so brighter that your eyes would get blurry *&^% shapes and colors galore! %^&* I wonder how did the artist get up to the top?!??? How did the police not catch them?!??? What a mystery for us all!!! Graffiti is art made on structures and buildings and fences and all kinds of places. Graffiti artists face hefty hefty hefty fines and even arrests!! in some states for “tagging” – and removal teams blast their work away later (BOOOOOOO in my opinion). It is definitely the truth that graffiti can sometimes be crude (uh oh) or on public property, but my personal rebuttal to that statement is that graffiti should ser legal because it is something very artistic and beautiful and pretty and i <3 how nice it looks and also, leaving it up, would lower the government’s expenses to the ground floor.
A common objection to legalizing graffiti that I hear all the time *eye roll* is that people do not want or desire vulgar words and images on their private property, which they do own by themselves. Civilians become to hate graffiti because it sometimes portrays vulgar or crude things (uh oh otra vez) here A lovely stroll through the city souring from inappropriate images or pictures or is like a worm found in a lovely red apple (bleh). I really don’t like apples all that much, but I think that this is a really really good metaphor for this situation. How ever, there are a solution. Mostly graffiti is not XXX on private-property and only a eensy weensy portion of it contains objectionationable material. So, you should remove vulgar tagging and prohibit the defacement of private property, but let the rest enrich sublime tunnels, bridges, and subway cars and more! et cetera et cetera.
If graffiti enriches public structures like I just said, it must be art, duh. art galleries throw all their dough at modern artists to buy a single dark line in the middle center of a blank canvas frame. Patrons, with much curious tiliting of heads, appreciate, wonder about the Meaning of The Line. Why Should it change on the streets???? Huh?? The abstract trippy words and colors of graffitis expresses the artists unique thoughts and ideas fr fr Its definetly difficult for some people to appreciate, but an untraditional expression is art nonetheless. And street art is not always even literally like hard to appreciate. Take for example Bansky, a London-based street artist, for example. He creates fun cool works that often have an political or social meaning have behind themselves. Wealthy or wealtheiest people even detach the actual wall or structure that surrounding Banksy’s graffiti to auction it away and off to the highest bidder!! Crazy. His created piece “Devolved Parliament”, a painting that portrays the English government system (partilmient) as crude apes sold for £9.9 million <- sorry that number is in pounds, but I usually use dollars you will have to do the converting yourself sorry . wooooowheee that’s some big bucks!!! Banksy is just not the only hombre in the growing world of becuase there exist many refined and equizite beautiful spray paintings – in cities all over the world, new art pieces, are popping up. Tourists to the places hunt through the streets to discovery of new brilliant pieces like a scavenger hunt like where’s waldo.
Not only the fact is graffiti super valuable enough that some people like pay for it, but in addition removing it costs these communities billions and billions and billions and bajillions of buckaroos every year!! According to an report from the Department of Justice (wayyyy back in 2006 when steve irwin died RIP), the government spends around 12 billion dollars!! a evry year cleaning graffiti acrossed the whole nation. see the end of this article for the sytashun. This really good statisstic i provided doesn’t even show money spent by cities governments for graffiti removal or for the legal process for graffiti crimes – even more grrrrrrr. even Despite this expenditure, graffiti, some wanted and some even not, stilll even now appears everywhere in cities across the universe and beyond in order to reduce this cost, removal teams with their painting and water and tools should in my humblest opionn only come and spend the big bucks for vulgar graffiti or that what is placed on private property- like i’ve been saying can’t you see it coming together now? They would have the ability to get every single last one of the unwanted images that previously went untouched because they aint wasting their time any mor. plus, here’s something you haven’t considered, extra money and time could be used INSTEAD in develop the arts education for children in the inner city, causing a circular cycle of good as unwanted graffiti might then reduce!!!! 🙂 doesn’t that sounds great?
Graffiti has a reputation muy bad for being vulgar and destructive 🙁 However, the government should permit graffiti *thumbs up from the president* because you see that its a valuable creative expression for people that’s important and the legalization of street art would conserve funds – and we all know that money can be an issue here with inflation and all. All this longggg essay is to say that we would just maybe gain just a few beautiful, enriching opportunities if you just do what I say.
SMASH that SUBSCRIBE BUTTON if you agree!!!! Comment down below and donate to my sister’s Gofundme! adiós
sitations:
la fotografía, banksy
U.S. Department of Justice, the interweb http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e11011354.pdf