By Andres Jimenez

Co Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,

Since the beginning of my time with Etched in Stone, my focuses have always been on reporting news and current events in the most honest and journalistic way possible. However, I believe that a larger part of my overall goal has been finding ways to improve the staff and their process to the best of my ability.

I know from experience and from belief that the best overall product comes from a group of strong individuals that have not only mastered their own skills, but also the skill that it takes to work and cooperate with those around them. In this case, a strong journalism staff is essential for a strong publication.

I’ve been on Etched in Stone for three years, and during the course of each, I have found new ways to connect myself to the work of others at the same level that I have connected myself to my own. My first year, I started as a staff writer and a web manager. The first and most important part of my job was creating a new, functional online publication and overseeing the transfer from paper to screen.

Though it may sound harder than it came out to be, this was still a large, if not enormous, endeavor for a “newly-ignited” sophomore with little experience under his belt. The project was one of many that shoved me head first under the water, forcing me to learn how to swim. When looking past the survival bit, however, I unlocked a door that led to hundreds of points that separated achievement and potential, each of them glittering as though they were a constellation in the sky.

As I moved into my second year, I began to find that my metaphor took on two faces. Not only did we grow and develop and learn wells of knowledge with each new star we discovered, but we also took the project on in the same dramatic, prodigious way that you would expect in reading such. I grew with the product that I had created, allowing my pride to push me to new lines each day, revealing the real reason for which I love to do this.

This year has been the single most impactful year of my life to date. Though not the main catalyst for this, journalism has given me more of a direct outlook on growth in the forms of education and media. As Editor-in-Chief, I have been able to structure and lead a staff of thirteen individuals whose potential is overwhelming, tapping into the collection of knowledge, experience, and skill and finding new ways to put each of them together in different formations.

I, again, return to my metaphor. The thing that I have come to find in my time of leading a group of those who are both interested and willing to create, is that in the vast and never ending expanse of space, there is an unfathomable amount of constellations waiting to be discovered and admired from every angle, and the overall product is a galaxy that glittered in the contrast.

In a year of transition, my goal has been to lead my staff members in a way that will show them the same thing that I have discovered. I intend for each of them to latch onto that potential and use it with each others, creating endless collections of dazzling stars that will shape the final product into the best that it can be. That is my goal.

By Olivia Jones

Co Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,

Leading a group of people is never easy, and the most important thing to grasp from the start is that each person is different, will learn and communicate in varying ways, and will take more or less amounts of time to understand a concept. The Etched in Stone staff is no different. Without a firm base on which to build, there is no possible way of advancing skywards, and constructing that solid platform for the younger staff members to go off of in the future is what my goal for the year has morphed into.

I’ve been with Etched in Stone for three years now, and have basically stuck with staff writing and editing for the entirety of my time here. I’ve dabbled in print publication design, but other than that my focus has been on writing and editing. So, one would think directing a staff in this field would be simple, but that is not always the case. Learning about each staff member, their interests, strengths, weaknesses, and areas of expertise has taken almost the entire year, but at last I think I’m getting closer to being able to know where each person stands. Ultimately, I want for the staffers of next year to have room to grow and expand, and for my fellow seniors to be able to look back on their time with Etched in Stone and say that they benefitted from their time with the program. High school can be a bit of a whirlwind with all of the material students are expected to memorize, but ultimately everyone needs to be able to store the most valuable information inside a treasure chest and use it for later. This is what I want my staff to be able to do through Etched in Stone.

My thought process is that if something is going to happen, be that thing positive or negative or in that wonderfully grey middle, I might as well learn something from it. If I don’t, then what was the purpose of that thing occurring, anyways?. I want the staff members of Etched in Stone to benefit from their time here, and not only grow as writers and journalists and reporters and video editors, but to further develop skills they can use later on in life. It has taken me a while to comprehend that this is ultimately what I want my staff to accomplish with EIS, but through experience I know that sometimes the best things to learn are the simplest. Learning from events and basic skills are vital. For a journalist, one of the most crucial and useful skills is communication.

Communication is such an important aspect to journalism. Without it, reporters cannot hope to write clear, precise, and truthful articles that their readers will fully understand. It plays large roles in the layout of websites, newspapers, and magazines and the navigation of them. It’s vital in news packages regarding how video clips are arranged. Reporters have to know how to communicate, otherwise their products will not serve the public. I want my staffers to understand just how critical this is. But not only from a journalistic point of view, but for farther down the line. Communication is a natural part of any professional and casual atmosphere, and anyone who knows how to effectively practice this skill will greatly benefit from it. I want my staffers to know this, and to be able to use their acquired strengths both within the realms of journalism and in everyday use.

Now it is no small feat to construct a stable platform for future staffers build upon or to ensure that my fellow senior staff members will graduate and be able to use what they learned effectively outside of Fossil Ridge High School, but it is a task I’m willing to tackle. It’s the things that are fought the hardest for that are worth it in the end.