The air in the Richmond News pressroom vibrated as the first sheets of newsprint snapped through the rollers, carrying the journalism class’s pages in fast, rhythmic bursts. The noise of the press filled the back of the building, but the students stood quietly in a line, leaning forward to watch as their headlines, photos and layouts transformed into a real newspaper for the first time. What they had built in the classroom was suddenly alive in print, and the experience left a mark many of them said they had not expected. For some students, the scale of the operation was the first surprise. Senior Braylon Castilleja walked into the pressroom expecting something closer to school equipment and realized immediately he had underestimated what a newspaper required. “I didn’t know they used a machine that big to make paper,” said Castilleja. He added watching the pressrun showed him the process was nothing like what he imagined. “This isn’t even close to what I thought the process would…