Joining the CHAT Newspaper is by no means a small undertaking. Becoming a part of the top-five-rated school publication is a heavy commitment for years to come. Writing, editing, and finding a place can initially be difficult. Many may feel unsure of where they’ll end up within the Newspaper when their senior year finally rolls around. The same, however, could absolutely not be said for Multimedia Editor-in-Chief Janeyliz Baez, who knew exactly where she wanted to be and put in the work to get there.
“I am a very ‘I know what I want’ kind of person,” says Baez. “Freshman year, I was in Mr. Fagen’s room after school, and I looked up at the wall [of Editor-in-Chief photos] and I’m like: ‘I really want to be on that wall.’ I told Mr. Fagen that. I always visualized it for myself.”
Baez’s journey in the PPCHS Newspaper began in her sophomore year of high school, but her passion for journalism emerged much earlier.
“When I saw my course card [in 8th grade] and I saw that Journalism was a class selection, I immediately knew that that was what I wanted to do and that was the class I wanted to take,” recalls the Editor-in-Chief. “I knew it was something I’d be passionate about.”
In her freshman year, she took Journalism I, a class offered as a prerequisite for anyone wanting to write for The CHAT. In the class, she learned the basics of the subject, the ethics behind it, and the skills she’d use over the course of the next few years.
“I realized this is what I’m passionate about and this is something I wish to continue,” Baez recounts. “When Mr. Fagen pulled me out of that class [at the end of the year], I kind of had an idea of what he was going to say. He told me that he wanted me back in his class for the Newspaper, and it really meant a lot to me, because that was truly what I was working towards.”
In her sophomore year, Baez immediately clicked with the class, connecting with fellow student journalists and quickly getting the hang of how things worked in the CHAT.
“I loved the concept of the class; working in a newsroom, walking in and out of class, it’s something that I really saw myself wanting to grow even further in.”
She certainly grew further in very little time at all, claiming an editor position within her first few months of the class and taking up the role of Columns Editor, though she originally had applied for the position of Clubs Editor. It was here that she discovered what it really took to be a leader in the class.
From there, her role in The CHAT only grew larger, becoming one of the paper’s Co-Managing Editors alongside current Editor-in-Chief Julianna Perez.
“To go from Columns Editor to Co-Managing, it just really meant so much to me,” she comments. “It proved to me that through my leadership and dedication and passion I was able to grow within the class.”
It was in that position that she learned what it meant to be a leader in the class and “pushed [her] outside [her] comfort zone.”
Regardless, Baez still had her eyes set on that very wall of Editor-in-Chief portraits that she’d said she would be up on someday. What she didn’t know at the time, though, was that something was about to happen that had never before occurred in The CHAT’s history: there would be both a content and multimedia Editor-in-Chief for the 2025-2026 school year.
“Obviously I knew that I wanted to be Editor-in-Chief just because I love leading. So when I got pulled out of class by Alexia, our past Editor-in-Chief, and Mr. Fagen, and they introduced me to the idea of being Multimedia Editor-in-Chief, I was really excited.”
Multimedia had long been a section that PPCHS hadn’t prioritized. Other schools at competitions would dominate the category, and The CHAT had lagged behind. However, with Baez taking up leadership as an Editor-in-Chief over the section for the first time ever, things began to change. Not only did the newspaper push out more multimedia content than ever under her leadership, it won an All Florida award in the category from the Florida Scholastic Press Association, truly testifying to the hard work Baez put in.
However, her success this year is also largely a result of the bonds she’s built within The CHAT community itself.
“This is the year where I felt the most connection within the class,” Baez records. “We consider each other family, just in the way we work together so much, and we’re friends, too. I feel like all of that together has created such a great dynamic. That brings me the most joy, because you can’t run a newsroom if your people don’t feel comfortable in it. I’m very grateful for that.”
Not only was she a constant, friendly presence to all in the newsroom, she was the first Editor-in-Chief to share the title with another, Julianna Perez.
“This was obviously our first time doing two Editor-in-Chiefs. When you’re a leader, you really want to build that bond with your team, and I feel we did such a great job with that. Julianna, Eri, Marlee, I not only consider them leaders, but I consider them my friends. Having that foundation helped out so much.”
Even now that Baez has graduated from PPCHS, she continues to push forward, following her passion for journalism. She will go on to attend the University of South Florida and pursue a major in mass communications.
“They have The Oracle at USF, which is their newspaper,” explains the graduate. “I’m planning on joining their newspaper, and I definitely want to continue networking [and] meeting with new journalists. I’ll start as a staff writer in The Oracle and continue pursuing my journey in journalism, which has been the thing I’ve always wanted since I was a freshman, so I’m very excited to see where that journey takes me.”
As Janeyliz Baez continues along her path at USF, she’s achieved the goal she set for herself all those years ago: her Editor-in-Chief portrait now hangs on that very wall, marking her place in the long lineage of journalists that have led the class over the years.
“Visualize it for yourself and work towards it, because I really do think anything is possible.”
