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11
IC Features
The Makhloutah
I
t was during her sweet sixteen birthday
party that it suddenly occurred to Melda
Salhab and her friend, David Walegreen,
to start a school newspaper. Oblivious to
friends partying around them, the two IB1
students took out a paper and pen and began
jotting down ideas.
“We felt that students need a way to ex-
press their voice,” said Melda.
Before long, the party became a brain-
storming session with students gathering
around giving their ideas.
That week, David began work on the
layout of the paper. “I had some ideas what
it should look like,” he said, “and I started
experimenting with various applications.”
Armed with story ideas and a potential
design, the students began sounding out
their friends and to count how many “re-
porters” they can muster.
The next step was to write up a pro-
posal and submit it to the school for ap-
proval.
“We talked about how we’re going
to do that, how we’re going to fund it,”
recalled Melda. “We thought about doing bake sales
to raise the money. We thought about the subjects we wanted
to include, how we should divide the newspaper sections, if we
wanted it monthly or bi-weekly.”
Finally in November, they approached the school. A newspa-
per was approved and included as a club.
As with all clubs, the meetings and times were announced
for those interested in joining. David and Melda showed up
nervously at the first meeting. Would their peers be interested?
Would they come to the meeting? Would they take it seriously?
Would they commit to it?
As they waited anxiously, students began to file in one by
one. Each of the 15 students took a seat and looked expectantly
at their future editors.
“We would like to start an IC newspaper…,” began Melda.
Together, they explained their idea. Barely finished, the stu-
dents began giving ideas for stories.
The waiting period began – are the reporters committed?
Will they actually do the articles? The answer came two weeks
later as reporters began to file in their stories. Some promised
stories never materialized. But many others did. Before long,
David and Melda began the daunting task of slotting their ar-
ticles in their layout.
It wasn’t easy. Some stories were too short. Some were too
long. Some didn’t have pictures. Oth-
ers had too many spelling mistakes. But they persevered –
at times well into the night.
Still, a name eluded them. Old IC files produced a newspaper
(printed in the 1960’s and 1970’s) written by students and called
“The IC Sun”. But editors and reporters wanted a different
name. Finally, a voice spoke out: “How about The Makhloutah?
(a mixture of nuts = a mixture of news).
Somehow the name clicked.
A vote was taken and The Makhloutah was born.
With fingers crossed, the paper was sent to the printing press.
Two days later, editors and reporters proudly distributed The
Makhloutah to faculty and students.
Some liked it and some didn’t. But overall, faculty and stu-
dents were supportive. Several more students showed up to the
weekly meetings and joined the team. French and Arabic writ-
ers showed up.
“We just started,” said David, “and it will turn out to be great.
This is something that we are leaving for IC when we graduate
next year. Whoever takes over can improve and add on it. The
ideas are endless.”
The Makhloutah is now issued monthly at IC.