Greetings students, staff and new readers!
This semester at The Cuestonian we have a wonderful lineup of aspiring journalists and content creators. Covering local news, sports and events happening in the area, our students have a broad spectrum of interests to focus on for the first half of 2024.
Taking over for outgoing Editor-in-Chief Morgan Ccecs will be Sawyer Thomas, while the role of Managing Editor will be filled by Nico Mireles. They’ll be in charge of editing articles written by their peers, researching and writing their own pieces, as well as helping incoming student journalists find their voice here at Cuesta College.
Returning student Caitlin Flanagan will be continuing her work reporting on local events like the rodeo, as well as interning for our professor Cyrus Saatsaz for the duration of the semester.
We have two sports editors this semester. Colby Love, a SLO native, will be one half of the Sports Editor team this semester, and Eva Genkinger, who has a long standing history playing sports like lacrosse, basketball, and soccer, will be the other. Sports have been a major part of both of their lives and they look forward to writing articles about local teams within our school and the greater community.
The role of Environmental Editor will be filled by Sarah Harvey. Harvey has lived off of the grid in Big Sur for 12 years. She believes that maintaining access to clean, open spaces is important for the health of people and hopes to reach readers in a personalized way so that they can think about how they individually can make a change in their relationship to the environment.
Our Social Media Editor this semester will be Makenna Ward, who has a passion for animals, writing and aims to show that in her articles and posts. Through her work she plans to inform people about what they can do to support local animals in need.
The Opinion Editor position will be filled by Linda Gonzalez. Gonzalez is an avid reader, and hopes to write about issues affecting California, primarily focusing on student advocacy. Through her articles she hopes to highlight Gen Z and their record breaking voter turnout in recent elections.
Finally, Joey Batista, our Arts and Entertainment Editor, will be covering the arts in SLO county, and plans on writing stories about the Shabang music festival happening later this year, as well as doing a feature on Cuesta’s Jazz Combo Program to bring awareness about music on campus.
We’re hoping to create an environment that nurtures creativity, educates the student body about the events in the community, as well as teaches the students themselves about proper journalism etiquette. In doing so we wish to provide students with the experience necessary to thrive in the professional world of journalism and news production.
Stay tuned for some exciting and informative articles coming up this spring semester! And remember to spread the word about our program so that we can keep educating future generations about the world of responsible journalism, as it is much needed in these hectic times.
