Today marks my last day as a New Trier High School student. Like the rest of the Class of 2025, I’m exhausted after a long, sometimes bizarre college admissions cycle while simultaneously looking forward to rejuvenating and preparing for my next steps beyond the North Shore. Before that can happen, though, I want to rejoice in the joy that nearing graduation brings: the fact that, for a whole week, I don’t have to wake up before 7 a.m.

  As a junior, I decided to sign up for Early Bird for the first time. Was that necessary? No. Was it worth it? Yes. Taking that class opened room in my schedule to join the Senior Instructional Leadership Corps and become a teaching assistant for English Learners Biology. That was one of the many times when New Trier gave me an opportunity to explore my interests, and I took it.

While high school has its ups and downs, it’s true you get out of it what you put into it. Trying out six extracurricular clubs and rising the ranks of The New Trier News to editor-in-chief, I grew as a person and leader and, more recently, began to discover the importance of moving on.

In my three years at NT News, I interviewed over 100 students, teachers, administrators, board members, local leaders, and community members as part of 50 articles documenting the New Trier community’s experiences, perspectives, and opinions between August 2022 and May 2025 (or 1,005 days). Whether it was a hard-hitting news story, human-interest piece, or season overview, I took pride in my reporting as I sought to keep my school community informed. 

My favorite articles to write were about the New Trier Board of Education and administration. Reporting on my district’s long-term plans helped me understand the sometimes conflicting core values of an academic and social community that I will have spent about 20% of my life in by the time I graduate in a week. 

Thus, it makes sense that what became the capstone of my high school journalistic career was when Superintendent Dr. Paul Sally announced his June 2025 retirement in May 2024; six months later, I broke the story that Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Peter Tragos would be his successor. With only six (including Tragos, seven) superintendents since 1931, the chance to report on history in the making was thrilling but also revealing on a personal level. 

Writing the Tragos piece was the start of my realization that my time as a high schooler was nearing an end. Even though New Trier moves on when I leave, signified by the selection of a new school leader tasked with charting a course for the district beyond 2030, my memories from the Northfield and Winnetka campuses will never leave me, as they’re my foundation. From reading classics such as “Jane Eyre” and “The Great Gatsby” and learning how to take a derivative of a function, my past experiences guide me to know what I want out of my future. 

Putting together this final article and looking back at my past reporting, I’m starting to see the intersection between my writing pursuits, coursework, and interests. Every story of mine began with an idea, but the ones that turned into the best products, the ones I remember most vividly today, were the ones that prompted further exploration. 

With my Nov. 21, 2023, piece, “IGSS students advocate for more affordable housing in NT Township,” for instance, I was inspired to register for the course Urban Design & Civic Engagement (UDCE), as opposed to the classic Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics. Combining social studies and applied arts, UDCE provided me with hands-on experience to impact my community, from presenting my proposal for a multi-use development near the current Mariano’s on Willow Road to Northfield Village Board trustee candidates to advocating for more sustainable practices in my town.

Entering college next year as an undeclared major, I look forward to joining The Daily Illini to utilize journalism’s interdisciplinary nature to continue exploring my interests. 

My advice: take risks. NT News was a risk for me, and I’m glad I took it. I met like-minded peers and advisers who pushed me to be better. 

Under the suggestion of my (soon-to-be former) journalism adviser, Sarah Hands, I broke away from my tendency to write solo and co-bylined two articles, one about new administrators and the other about a then-board of education candidate. Hesitant to share my beat, I quickly found pleasure in bestowing my passion and knowledge (such as interviewing techniques) for the craft to others. 

The gradual release aspect of leadership, preparing the next generation of student journalists, is something I mistook as laziness when I was an underclassman, seeing how seniors slowed down their writing output and took a step back as the school year wrapped up. Now, though, with the context and experience to understand their decision-making, I see how we seniors can’t stay in high school forever (nor should we). We’ve gotten all we can out of secondary education, and now it’s time for new people—new leaders—to have those experiences we’ve had and more. 

Watching the sophomores and juniors (plus seniors) on NT News sweep at the 2025 Illinois Journalism Education Association Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest, receiving 25 awards, including seven first-place honors in late April, plus two Golden Eagle awards from the Northern Illinois Press Association in early April, I’m proud of the team I, my Co-Editor-in-Chief Neil Sanderson, and Managing Editor Brendan Fijol led this school year.  

As I depart today, transitioning from editor-in-chief to former editor-in-chief, I reflect on the privilege it was to serve in a leadership role, not for the title, but the ability to pass on an evolving creation with over 100 years of storied history. This school year has been about protecting NT News’s editorial independence, and its status as an independent, student-run publication remains. That way, future students can continue to have a protected space to publish what they deem relevant and appropriate while showcasing self-expression. 

In November 2024, I wrote, “The hardest decision of senior year is not committing to a post-high school plan, but knowing how to leave their hometown the right way.” Now, I know how to leave, trusting everything will be alright.