Octagon, Medallion and Student Council leaders have decided the students who will fill seniors’ positions.
This year, the Octagon had five overall editors-in-chief. Next year’s group will be separated into print and online editors, returning to the usual system.
The current editors-in-chief — seniors Jack Christian, Allison Zhang, Mehdi Lacombe, Chardonnay Needler and Mohini Rye — are handing their positions to juniors Anna Frankel, Héloïse Schep, Jackson Crawford and Larkin Barnard-Bahn.
Schep and Frankel will be the print editors-in-chief, and Crawford and Barnard-Bahn will be the online editors-in-chief.
Adviser Paul Bauman, who helped decide next year’s leaders, said he looked for editors who could “take charge because it’s (the students’) newspaper, not mine.
“The current editors and I also chose them for their experience and writing ability. (Crawford) has only been on the staff for a year, but he did a great job and has a great sports background.
“Next year, I look forward to improving our sports coverage and posting stories sooner.”
Barnard-Bahn said she is looking forward to adding more multimedia to the online edition.
“All Pacemaker award-winning websites use apps to make their stories more readable so there’s not just a wall of text,” she said. “There are visuals and graphics that attract the reader’s attention.”
Barnard-Bahn also wants to improve the sports coverage.
“We’re looking forward to making our sports coverage more consistent and more interesting for the reader along with being more timely and getting everything covered while, of course, teaching the staff,” she said.
Meanwhile, Frankel said she hopes to improve the design of the newspaper.
“(Schep) and I are going to change some of the more standardized things we do, such as the format of pullquotes and the fonts we use,” she said. “We also want to focus more on the design elements, such as using different-sized images and having pages with shorter, more playful stories.”
Frankel said she wants to add more student-life stories so students can get to know their peers.
The Medallion will have one editor-in-chief and two senior editors.
Junior Jewel Turner will be the editor-in-chief, and the senior editors will be juniors Yumi Moon and Savannah Rosenzweig. Although the senior editors will do almost the same job, they won’t have the title of editor-in-chief, according to senior Yanele Ledesma.
Adviser Liz Leavy called the new editors the “leadership dream team.”
“(Moon) brings a lot of experience to the table,” she said. “She produced some really terrific spreads this year, including lower school stories, and I know I can count on her continuing to provide excellent content next year as well.
“(Rosenzweig) has only been on the staff for a semester but showed up eager to learn. She’s developed a solid skillset in a short amount of time despite the steep learning curve necessitated by joining in the second semester.”
The current editors-in-chief — seniors Michaela Chen, Kyra LaFitte and Ledesma — chose the positions for next year along with Leavy.
“Jewel showed the most enthusiasm for becoming editor-in-chief next year,” Ledesma said. “She was proactive with reminding this year’s editors to teach and create the yearbook and constantly asked questions to better understand her job.
“It was a tough decision, but I think it was the right choice.”
Leavy agreed with Ledesma.
“Jewel let us know early on that she was interested in the editor-in-chief position,” Leavy said. “She checked in frequently to ask questions about what she could do to prepare herself for the job.
“Jewel took a ton of initiative in learning the ins and outs of the process, not only by gaining the technical skills needed but also by doing things like looking through our older yearbooks and books from other schools in order to get a good sense of the possibilities and pitfalls of creating a great book.”
Leavy said one of the main goals for next year is to expand coverage of the middle and lower schools, as well as expand the marketing of the Medallion.
Turner has already made plans for next year’s yearbook.
“I want to create the best book possible and something that the school hasn’t seen yet,” Turner said.
Along with new Medallion editors, there are also new heads of departments.
The heads of the copy department will be sophomores Nate Leavy and Athena Lin. It was made a shared position because both students have little experience but are great with copy, according to Ledesma.
The head of photography will be junior Maddie Woo. Although she’s not technically in the elective, she’s been helping with photography all year, according to Ledesma.
The head of design will be junior Jason Li, who also joined fairly recently but has “put himself forward” to really understand yearbook design, Ledesma said.
As for the Student Council, sophomore Bri Davies will be the student body president, one of the first juniors to be president in a long time.
“I’m really excited to be president. I want to make everyone at Country Day as happy as possible and make it a very enjoyable year,” Davies said.
Juniors Jackson Margolis and Rebecca Waterson will be the co-student body vice presidents.
The current president, senior Monique Lonergan, said she, the other seniors on Student Council and adviser Valerie Velo chose Davies for many reasons.
“She’s been on Student Council the longest of all our applicants, so she had the needed experience,” Lonergan said. “She also shows initiative and is a great leader, as well as being very dedicated.”
Waterson and Margolis were chosen because “they work well together and have a lot of experience with spirit,” according to Lonergan.
“We thought they will be great at helping oversee the dance and spirit committees as well as assisting (Davies),” Lonergan said.
Officers for next year will be junior Garrett Shonkwiler (chair of finance), Moon (chair of spirit), sophomore Lili Brush (chair of dances) and freshman Arikta Trivedi (chair of communications).
—By Arikta Trivedi
Originally published in the May 28 edition of the Octagon.
