The editors and staff of The Pharcyde launched ThePharcyte.com on Friday, Jan. 15, giving the Upper School newspaper an online presence. The new website will allow student journalists to post articles, pictures, stories, and sports updates more quickly, filling in the gap between printed issues of The Pharcyde. 

With so much news coming out every day both within the Benjamin community and the world, The Pharcyde wants to cover as much as possible to create a reliable source for news and other important information.

As the new advisor to the paper this year, Dr. Peruggia pushed the staff to write more about global issues, incorporate different styles of writing such as fashion and critiques into the paper, and become more modern.

“Thepharcyte.com will allow us to move our media programs into the 21st century in a way that I hope is engaging for the entire Upper School community,” he said.

Charlie Spungin, sports editor, is excited for the website because it will allow him the opportunity to highlight Benjamin sports in a way that wasn’t possible before.

“With a website, I will be able to update after each sports game with the score from that game so we have a constant scoreboard for students to check on their favorite sporting events. We will also be able to write reviews of games and keep students updated on sports events as they happen, which is something we haven’t been able to do with just a printed paper,” Spungin said.

This website won’t just benefit the staff of The Pharcyde, it will provide an opportunity for students to be involved with the newspaper even if they aren’t in the class. Students can choose something that they are interested in or passionate about and write an article that The Pharcyde can publish.

Senior Alex Kahn said, “I am really excited that The Pharcyde is expanding to a website. Even though I am not in the class, I have been able to write some articles for the paper and have them published. This website could also be helpful so that people can go back at any time to read articles.”

The new site promises to bring the Upper School community more than just the news.While the bulk of ThePharcyte.com’s content will be created by the writing staff of The Pharcyde, this website will provide a portal to connect students to other media created at Benjamin: video productions from BTV and a gallery of artwork from the Fine Arts department.

Because of COVID-19, the Visual Arts and Innovation Department has had limited opportunities to display students’ artwork. Chair of the department Mrs. Ford is excited to have a platform to showcase student pieces.

“The Gallery will offer students a fantastic opportunity to share multiple pieces of their work with the community while acquiring curatorial skills normally introduced through the physical gallery installation process,” she said. “It has the potential to reach a greater audience, as it can be viewed at any time at the viewer’s leisure.”

Junior Sydney Steinger, editor, reporter, and anchor for BTV also has high hopes that the website will provide more opportunities for the Benjamin community to access their productions.

She said, “I’m really excited about the website as it’s another chance to showcase all of the work we’ve done for BTV. It’s exciting that our work will now be able to reach a broader audience and could open new possibilities for the BTV crew.”

The Pharcyde hopes that ThePharcyte.com will allow important Benjamin news, events, sports scores to reach more people in the Benjamin community. 

If you have any interest in writing an article, you can email Co-Editors in Chief Skyler Zur ([email protected]) and Molly Fried ([email protected]).