The publications staff this year has a diverse group of new members who joined for all sorts of reasons. From being in a new country, to school and community involvement, to sheer love for writing and photography, this year’s staff has a solid mix of team members.  

Three girls were so excited to join publications at Monarch Emelie Utterman, Ronja Schuepferling, and Flora Mai are exchange students here for the year, that are unified in their excitement for the Monarch publication staff. “I joined publications because we don’t have a yearbook in Germany. I wanted a new experience here, and this is one of the best things because we don’t even have it in Germany,” Mai said. The combination of the novelty of the yearbook as well as the short time they were here made it a perfect fit. “I figured that I am only here for one year, and that I should do something for the school,” Schuepferling said.

Other people joined publications to fulfill their love of writing, photography, or just the process in general of creating the different publications. Heidi Liles, Mailys Steiblen, Morgan Cioth, Claire Maleachi, Levi Wood, Aiden Velick, and Madison Curry all share this sentiment. “I’ve always wondered how it happens and I just really wanted to know the details, so I joined to see the process of it all and because I thought it would be awesome to create it on my own,” Liles said. Seeing your work in print is a cool feeling that many of the new staffers wanted to experience. Cioth shared that she is “excited to see the final product. [She] thinks it will be really satisfying because seeing that all the work you did paid off is a great feeling.”

Another reason for joining the class was getting more involved in the school. Publications is an in-school way to represent monarch in a unique way. Emma Baziuk, Nick Kauza and Carmen Harris are all involved in other things at Monarch, so publications is a perfect fit with their schedules. Kauza “joined publications to get more involved in the school. [Yearbook] was one of my best and most interesting choices [of things I could join].”                                                 

Other cool stories of why people joined range from transferring schools to being forced by siblings. Michael Sparkman transferred from Fairview to Monarch after being an editor for Fairview’s Royal Banner. Sparkman is excited for a change of role and a new staff. He is happy to “be more in a writer’s role because [he] has been editor before and frankly [he] enjoys writing more than editing.” Maya Day also came from another school, and after working towards being in their publications class, was bummed to leave. After transferring to Monarch and checking out the courses, she  “saw there was a class [at Monarch], got super excited, and joined.”

Zikra Hashmi’s sister Heraa was the guiding force bringing her to the yearbook room. Zikra described how Heraa “was in yearbook since before they combined the class. She loved it and said I should try it out.”

Senior year was a motivator for some, in Sarah Callin’s case it was because, well yolo. Callin said that she “joined publications because basically YOLO. [Her thought process was that] it’s my senior year and it sounds like fun, guess I’ll try it out.” Victoria Armitage joined publications for necessary credit, but once she got to class she was “really excited because it seems like everybody works together really well.”

The longest story of why you joined publications award goes to Madison Curry, however the most interesting story awards goes to her as well. Madison’s spark for the paper was first ignited when she “saw [an] article by Brody (former A&E Editor) about Libertarianism.” She didn’t agree with the piece and thought ““Ok, you got any facts?” Then one day in math class Madison happened upon Abby Pelsmaeker, who encouraged her to join. “She strongly encouraged it and said that if I wanted to, I could probably try and be an editor, possibly editor of opinions, and that really interested me,” Curry said. Today, Madison is in fact the opinions editor and she is very “excited to hear other people’s opinions and see what other people come up with as far as opinion articles or editorials.”

Overall, this year’s new staff is a diverse group that will bring unique elements to each publications. It will be a good year in publications.