The Mash, a teen-focused newspaper published by the Chicago Tribune, has been gaining popularity in the past year, at least if Mount Carmel readership is any indication.  Now,  Mount Carmel can boast that two of our own students are contributing to that success. 

Senior Ben Jarzombek has had multiple articles published in The Mash over the past two years, on subjects ranging from fashion to the recent protests against police in downtown Chicago.  Meanwhile, junior Conor Langs, who also writes for The Caravan, has joined Jarzombek.

The production of The Mash is fully dependent on its teen staff members. Positions range from journalists, to photographers, designers, and artists. Staff meetings take place on Thursdays, once a month, at Tribune Tower downtown, and a print copy of the newspaper is published every other week on Thursday. The articles also can be found online at www.themash.com.

While Jarzombek had heard of the newspaper by reading it here at MC, “I never thought about writing for it until I saw that they were looking for writers. I applied and was accepted.”

When the teen staff meets, they share their progress on current assignments, discuss what is going around in their high schools, and brainstorm ideas for new articles. More often than not, the writers can choose what they want to write, although on occasion articles are assigned by their adult staff.

Most articles run 500 words and may take a week to 10 days to develop. Some longer subjects like may take even longer.  Most require several interviews in order to develop the topic.  While the most common approach for interviewing is a phone call, Jarzombek notes that some interviews must be accomplished “face to face.”

While recent editions of The Mash have featured many funny, easy-going articles, the publication also tackles a lot of serious articles that relate to almost every teenager, including teen pregnancy, lockdown drills and how to prepare for the upcoming college years.