The Student News Site of Hall High School

Hall Record

Hall Record

Hall Record

Sean Donovan, Editor-in-Chief

Sean Donovan is 17 years old that lives with his family in West Hartford, Connecticut where he attends Hall High School as a senior. He has been writing for the school newspaper for the past three years and is now one of the Editors-in-Chief; most of his articles are opinion pieces about hall, as well as some articles dealing with national news.

Besides the newspaper club, Sean runs cross country, participates in Model UN, and plays the Saxophone in the school band. He’s looking forward this year to seeing all the steps that go into the process of organizing and publishing the printed paper and can’t wait to start interviewing people for his next articles.

All content by Sean Donovan

2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates

Sean Donovan, Editor in Chief
April 18, 2019

Changing School Start Times

Sean Donovan, Feature’s Editor
June 7, 2018
Incoherence from Above: The New Bells and Announcements

Incoherence from Above: The New Bells and Announcements

Sean Donovan, Features Editor
February 7, 2018
This was taken about halfway up the block on the east side of Broadway, between 79th and 80th Street. It's at the north end of the "Filene's Basement" store on the corner, and it's a place where I've often seen homeless people holding up a sign that asks for assistance... With very rare exceptions, I haven't photographed these homeless people; it seems to me that they're in a very defensive situation, and I don't want to take advantage of their situation. But something unusual was happening here: the two women (who were actually cooperating, and acting in tandem, despite the rather negative demeanor of the woman on the left) were giving several parcels of food to the young homeless man on the right. I don't know if the women were bringing food from their own kitchen, or whether they had brought it from a nearby restaurant. But it was obviously a conscious, deliberate activity, and one they had thousght about for some time... What was particularly interesting was that they didn't dwell, didn't try to have a conversation with the young man;they gave him they food they had brought, and promptly walked away. As they left, I noticed the young man peering into his bag (the one you see on the ground beside him in this picture) to get a better sense of the delicious meal these two kind women had brought him... ********************** This is part of an evolving photo-project, which will probably continue throughout the summer of 2008, and perhaps beyond: a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. I don't like to intrude on people's privacy, so I normally use a telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they're still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what's right in front of me. I've also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting -- literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I've learned to keep the camera switched on (which contradicts my traditional urge to conserve battery power), and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture ... after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it's pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. For the most part, I've deliberately avoided photographing bums, drunks, drunks, and crazy people. There are a few of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don't want to be photographed, and I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them. I'm still looking for opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. We'll see how it goes ... The only other thing I've noticed, thus far, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, *far* more people who are *not* so interesting. They're probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I've photographed ... but there was just nothing memorable about them.

Helping the Helpless this Holiday Season

Sean Donovan, Features Editor
December 10, 2017

Effects of the Common Core Initiative at Hall

Sean Donovan, Features Editor
November 8, 2017
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