Could the next Pulitzer Prize-winner come from GoodShepherdCatholicSchool?

It’s of course too soon to tell, but language arts teacher Tanya Glickler said several of her students who are now studying journalism at the school can rival today’s journalists.

“I could put some of my students up against some of your reporters and they would be neck and neck,” she said with a smile.

The school has gone the past two years without a newspaper but this year not only has the newspaper been resurrected as Cardinal Craze but the same students working to build the publication, will also work on the yearbook for this year. So far the students are true self-starters, a trait that arguably can be attributed to Glickler’s teaching style.

“I teach them structure first and they write their paper from there,” she said. “Too many parents like to help too much [with homework]. How can I teach them to write if you [parents] do it for them?”

Wendy Ruggiero is one parent who can vouch for how well the students are writing — she just happens to be their journalism/yearbook instructor along with Sarina Ramos. It has been quite the learning experience for both of the mothers who volunteered for the course but do not have a journalism background. But that hasn’t slowed the duo down for a minute.

Ruggiero, who is a massage therapist instructor with Hands On Therapy living in Mesquite, is on the advisory board for the school for publicity outreach and has plenty of experience using neighborsgo.com to post news about the school. She also wrote a wellness column for the site. Ramos, who is banker with Comerica and worked with the yearbook in the past, helps the students with the laptops, although she jokingly admitted they may not need much help.

“The kids catch on to computers quicker than we do,” she said.

The class, which is an elective for the first time at the school, occurs twice a week for 45 minutes and has students in fifth through seventh grade. The newspaper features sports, news, “What’s on my iPod,” movie reviews, eighth-grade highlights and an advice column called “Lola,” which had quite the “controversial” beginning.

“The students were very driven that the column had to be a woman’s name,” she said. “It was not a battle worth having!”

Ruggiero said the goal for the class is to act as outreach for the community, learn how to generate and gather news, understanding news online and improving writing skills which she said the students are “all very good at.”

“And so they can be proud to be doing what they are doing,” she continued. “As well as receive recognition for it.”

Ramos also said the students are learning to communicate with the community by interviewing people as they learn to work together and bounce ideas off each other. And they use programs like Publisher and work with the Internet by using neighborsgo.com. As a result of everything they are learning, the students are keeping up their enthusiasm.

“They all want to do something. But we have to try to be fair,” she said as she pointed to a laminate with “Yearbook/Newspaper” written on it. Apparently such credentials are a hot commodity for the class. The students brandish them with pride when they are out on assignment. So far the class has attended volleyball games, interviewed older students, planning advice for “Dear Lola,” taking several photos and wrote about their thoughts on Sept. 11, 2001 among countless other projects.

Fifth-grader Evelyn Escuadra, 10, said she is enjoying all of it.

“My favorite part is when you see an interesting story at school and you get to write about it and make it a little more interesting.”