The student journalists thought long and hard about a name for their school newspaper. In the end, they decided on The Rising, symbolic of their effort to improve their lives and approach a higher level.

The goal of the newspaper was to focus on three themes: students’ and teachers’ writing about their own internal worlds, lives, thoughts and feelings; articles about the educational and extra-curricular activities at CUNY Prep; students’ and teachers’ writing about their families, friends, neighborhoods, experiences and opinions about their lives and the outside world.

In the first four issues of "The Rising", students displayed great candor in writing about these topics.

In the first issue students wrote about the difficulties they had in other high schools and why they were succeeding at their new school. Graduates of the school wrote a piece giving advice on how to succeed at CUNY Prep and get accepted into college. The issue included several pages about activities at the school. Two of the most popular features of the paper were an advice column for students and a section called “Lives,” in which students wrote moving articles about their own lives. The issue also featured articles by teachers, which would become a regular feature in "The Rising".

Subsequent issues of "The Rising" included poetry sections, feature stories about CUNY Prep @ Night, student opinion pieces on the issues of love, teenagers raising children, favorite music, student neighborhoods and racism.

"The Rising" devoted an entire issue to CUNY Prep Week, including coverage of job shadows, fashion show, mock trial and field day. Students took hundreds of photos for each issue.

“I learned good interviewing skills, critical thinking and also enhanced my vocabulary, which has helped my writing and speech,” said "Rising" Editor-in-Chief Octavia Redmond.