Sophomore Anna Carr, an Honors English 10 student, submitted an essay from the class to the Star Tribune and had it published. Every year in the class, there is an extra credit opportunity that involves writing an insightful observation on some aspect of modern-day communication or behavioral trend and submitting that essay to any newspaper publication. “A few hours after I sent in my essay, the opinions editor emailed me and told me that I needed to fill out a couple forms to enable them to publish my work. They told me I’d most likely be published that following Monday,” Carr said.

The essay is specifically about how photographic social media can take away from our social interaction with each other and truly enjoying the present-day moment. “I would describe my essay to be about how people today get too absorbed in social media by constantly taking and editing photos. Too many people are lost in the moment and use posting pictures as a social status,” Carr said.

Carr, not expecting to be published by the Star Tribune, was very surprised when she heard back from the opinions editor. “I only sent it into a publication for the extra credit and didn’t think it’d be published. I assumed there would probably be better written papers submitted, but I guess it might’ve been better than I thought,” Carr said. 

This extra credit opportunity not only provides surplus points to raise an English class grade, but it gives writers an opportunity to get a name out there. “Every year there’s at least one person that gets published from this assignment. Last year it was Joe Blake, and a newspaper offered him a job to write a column on their newspaper,” Honors English 10 teacher Mrs. Anne Marie Dominguez said.

Given the opportunity to open the eyes of her readers, Carr is experiencing all types of feedback. “I didn’t realize how many people read the Star Tribune; it was cool that I could get my voice out there because so many people read the Star Tribune,” Carr said.

“I think in a way, I drew my writing from personal experience. I try to now focus more on the experiences I have every day, rather than feeling obligated to take picture,” Carr said. With a new achievement under Carr’s belt, she has a lot to look forward to in the near future.