Goodbye!

By Tyler Kwon and Madina Safdari

As our final days as Editors-in-Chief near, we have been proud and heartened to reflect on the beginning of our journey and the progress we have made since.

The Plaid Press’s theme for the year, “growth,” manifested itself in all of our work.

We set out to achieve ambitious goals, and accomplishing them would be no small feat. We wanted to increase our social media presence. We wanted to begin producing more video and photo content. We were successful in the later. Most of all, we wanted the Plaid Press to become a fixture of the GHC community by creating stories that mattered to students.

In an attempt to encourage more online activity, the Plaid Press created #digdeeper, a series that highlights unique and talented students across campus whose stories impact the entire campus.

Additionally, with the support of a grant from the Jack Oakie Foundation, we invested in, learned about, and experimented with new video equipment. The Plaid Press produced its very first professional video this year, opening ourselves to greater, diversified engagement with our readers.

We also worked to field and publish more GHC-centered stories in the newspaper and online. From the new Writing Center to Dodgeball Inferno, the Plaid Press was there. We were also there to cover the aftermath of the Parkland shooting.

We dedicated a centerspread to the topics surrounding school shootings, closely followed GHC’s March 14 events, and conducted a schoolwide survey about school safety and gun violence.

In doing so, we engaged GHC in meaningful conversations about a subject close to our hearts while recording an important moment in our collective history, embodying the spirit and purpose of a school publication.

We would like to take a moment to address our staff, without whom all of this incredible work would not have been possible. We watched you push your boundaries in many ways. You’ve grown as writers, having learned how to write concisely, truthfully, and persuasively. You’ve grown socially, finding friends in each other and speaking with complete strangers, whether they be schoolmates or firefighters. You have produced thoughtful, impressive, and meaningful work, and for that we are enormously proud of you.

Also, many of our accomplishments this year would not have been possible without the support of our adviser Melissa Spaulding and administrator Lori Zaragoza, who gave us the guidance we needed to ensure each issue could make its way to the classrooms.

Amidst a tense political and social climate, the demand for honest journalism has never been greater. And from the beginning, we have done our best to uphold the principles of respectable journalism as young people in order to ensure its continued presence.

Though we may be far from perfect, we believe that our staff and their dedication embody the spirit of journalism. We hope our hard work has been conveyed in all the work we have published. And most of all, we’d like to thank you, our readers, for your continuous support and trust in our publication.