During my junior year, my friend told me she took Lantern because the class would look good on her transcript for college. I came with her a few times while she interviewed other students, and I immediately knew I wanted to be a part of it. I loved the idea of being the interviewer, asking people about something important to them and getting to learn their stories. I signed up to take Lantern my senior year, and since I had Mr. Silvidi for English Composition I and II, I knew I would especially enjoy the class. 

I am so grateful that the Lantern was introduced to me and that I had the opportunity to take it this year. I am a completely different person now than I was at the beginning of the year because of the skills I developed as a member of the school newspaper staff. 

Lantern taught me structure and responsibility as there is little to no flexibility when other writers and editors rely on one another to stay on a strict publishing schedule. The class also strengthened my social skills by pushing me to talk to people I had never spoken or even met before, and ask thoughtful, personal questions. I learned how to build on responses with follow-up questions to dig deeper and better understand someone’s story. I gained confidence by standing in front of crowds to take photos and learning to not worry  about what other people think. 

Lantern became very special to me because in just one year, it brought me immensely closer to this school than I had felt throughout all of high school. I was able to experience different sides of the school community I never would have gotten to see, like backstage during the musical or conversations with students and their families whom I normally would have simply passed in the hallway.  

I have grown to love Lantern and I recommend it to any high school student to take at least once during their four years. It forces students to step outside their comfort zones and discover parts of their own school they may have overlooked, and connect with amazing people they maybe would have never crossed paths with.

I will take the skills this class has taught me into my daily life, especially as I enter a completely new environment in college next year. I will continue to put myself out there and stay curious as much as possible.

Thank you Mr. Silvidi for making sure we always got our work done while still making Lantern the most fun class that I looked forward to at the end of every day.  Thank you to Rin Lam, Lekha Mendpara, John Arfons, Kayla Kucharski and Kaylynn Waldron for being patient and supportive when editing my articles and always willing to help improve my writing throughout the year.