5th Grader Proud to Wear Publisher Hat
Emily Erker is a newspaper publisher. Emily Erker is in fifth grade. Grown up Emily will be a force to be reckoned with! This petite, well-spoken girl has already published 22 issues of her newspaper, The Sparkle Times, and has hopes of continuing to publish through middle school and high school. Hearing her speak about her operation, she could likely serve as the editor of The Lakewood Times right now!
Emily’s newspaper hobby is a true example of employing all of our Vision of a Lakewood competencies!
The newspaper sprung from Emily’s interests in business, writing, reading and entrepreneurship. She printed her first issue as a fourth-grader and aimed for a weekly schedule but soon found that those deadlines came too quickly so The Sparkle Times is now a biweekly. The publication is a terrific blend of articles on pop culture, current events both nationally and globally - a recent issue turned a focus on Ukraine - polls, a craft how-to, and yes/no debates on hot topics such as should self-driving cars replace regular ones.
Not only is Emily a publisher, but she’s a boss as well. She currently has four student-employees that she recruited from placing a hiring ad in one of her issues. Each person earns about a quarter per article. Emily said she definitely feels the pressure when the printing deadline looms, but she said it’s also when she is able to just crank it out the best. When she sees that new issue of The Sparkle Times is when Emily says she can finally take a breath and admire her and her team’s work. “It feels like you’ve really accomplished something,” Emily said.
We’d say that you certainly have, Emily!