The Senior Issue Is Here!!!
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Abington Senior High School, Abington, PA, 19001 June 2018 THE SENIOR ISSUE IS HERE!!! CHECK OUT SENIORS’ FUTURE PLANS (pages 4 - 7)! Farewell from Our Co-Editors-In-Chief Dear Readers, My fascination with the Abingtonian started in 2011, when I was in sixth grade. My sister was the Features editor that year, and every time a fresh Abingtonian issue was pressed it would be passed around my house from family member to family member, the articles inside examined and evaluated by each individual person (though I mostly just read the Heard Th is Month quotes and unsuccessfully tried to solve the Wordlinks). With my sister’s promotion to Co- Editor-in-Chief the next year, and the subsequent arrival of more Abingtonians to our home, my interest in the paper only grew. I’m very honored to have followed in my sister’s footsteps and served as your Features editor last year and your Co-Editor-in-Chief this year. I hope I have made the Abingtonian as enjoyable to read as it was to edit. :) I want to thank you, the readers, for constantly nagging me with questions about Wordlink solutions or telling me that a Heard Th is Month quote made you laugh. I also want to thank the writers for all their contributions to the paper over the past nine months. Editing can’t be done if articles aren’t written, and you guys really brought your A-game this year. I am very proud that we were able to produce two special issues this year. Th e fi rst, the all-comedy Abingphonian has been a dream of mine to publish since tenth grade, and this year, it not only became a reality, but a success. I know this issue brought some of our writers out of their comfort zones and gave them the chance to write from a diff erent perspective. Comedy, like life, is not about agreeing with someone else’s views or pointing out the obvious, but rather seeing things through a diff erent viewpoint. I hope the Abingtonian is able to continue to produce this issue for many years to come, as I believe a little laughter can heal the world. Our second special issue, a reaction to the shooting in Parkland and the continuing school shooting epidemic throughout the United States, combined with the reaction of the school community to this issue, reaffi rmed my belief in the power of the press to make a statement that makes a change. I think the Abingtonian showed this year that it is malleable and powerful and can be used in unthought of ways. I’d like to shout out to Mr. Garry for providing most of the content for the Heard Th is Month quotes and thank him for saying stupid things throughout the year. I’d like to thank Mr. Quigley for teaching me how to do simple commands on a computer and only making fun of me a little bit for not knowing that stuff beforehand. I’d like to shout out to all the students and teachers who stopped me in the hallway to see if I’d found a prom date yet. (I did, and no, he doesn’t go to this school.) I’d also like to thank the readers for appreciating all the hard work that goes into this paper and making these issues worthwhile. I’d like to thank all the writers for sending in quality articles every month, even during those months when you really didn’t feel like writing. Th anks for going along with my crazy comedy issue! Th anks to Grace, Timmy, Jordan, Caeden, and Matt for being wonderful section editors this year. I know Matt will do great next year as the editor-in-chief! Th anks to Melissa for not only being an amazing Features editor with me last year, but for being an even better Features editor than I could hope to be this year! Th anks to Alice, my Co-Editor-in-Chief. We made a great team and some great issues. Finally, I’d like to thank the Abingtonian sponsor, the one and only Mr. Quigley. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there to answer all my questions about formatting and deadlines and to make fun of the gifs in my PowerPoints. I’ve loved being the Co-Editor-in-Chief, and I thank you for making this experience fun and informative. I know I’ll miss high school and I’m a little scared to move on, but I’m also very excited. I don’t know what the future holds, but I hope it’ll make me laugh! So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu, Signing off for the fi nal time, Your 2017-2018 Co-Editor-in-Chief, Dionna Dash D Yet another school year, another eight issues of the Abingtonian, another nine months of stressful cramming before tests and seven a.m. alarm clocks has come and gone — this one, seemingly more turbulent than the last. For many of us on the staff here at the Abingtonian, myself included, this marks the conclusion of our three year journey with the paper, during which we have covered everything from the political to the mundane to the straight up ridiculous (see: Friends Club). We have written about school shooting aft er school shooting, natural disaster aft er natural disaster, political crises aft er political crises; yet, more importantly, we have also covered the responses to these events: the rise of student-led activism and the emphasis on perseverance over hopelessness. Journalism is, at its very core and in every subject, activism. It is a commitment to fi nding and spreading the truth, no matter where on the political spectrum it may lie. Not matter on a high school, college, or professional level, it is a commitment to providing a platform for those who are not naturally aff orded one. Whether be a local, Abington specifi c concern or an issue on the national scale, we must be here to voice our concerns. In March of this year, we published an issue to honor some of the countless students across this country who have lost their lives in senseless tragedy — students like us, or students who never had the chance to be like us, who had their lives ripped away from them before the opportunity to even walk across that stage during graduation. When tragedies like the Parkland shooting and countless others strike so close to our hearts as high school students, I hope that the Abingtonian has served, and always will serve, as an eff ective outlet to channel outrage and push for change. Last but not least, thank you to Mr. Quigley and Mr. Saylor for the three fantastic years, and the opportunity to helm vital aspect of the Abington student body. Alice Gao Th e Abingtonian June 2018 Page 2 Farewell from Our Features Editor Dear Abingtonian Readers, I enjoyed the privilege of being your features editor for the past two years. To some just a “meaningless” or “silly” section, the features portion to me provides a well-needed break from the heavy load of the news and features sections. As we retrospectively peruse the major news stories this year, with school shootings seemingly rampant and government collusion around every corner, “Heard this M onth” quotes and “Top 10” lists surely lighten the mood. Th is is the power of the features section, and I am fortunate enough to have experienced it fi rst-hand. I loved reading all of your submissions, so thank you to everyone who wrote for the paper. By the end of this year, we received so many featured articles that we literally could not fi t them all into the paper. I call that a success! For those who wrote in other sections, I defi nitely appreciate that as well. As a school paper, having such a variety of sections, writers, and types of articles is paramount to paper that includes the whole school community. I am proud to say that with our special editions, such as the Abingphonian, our satirical edition, and our Enough! paper dedicated to the victims of the Parkland and other school shootings, we achieved our goal of creating an interesting and versatile piece of literature for the students of Abington Senior High School. Next year, I will be attending Elon University, majoring in biology. Although that is not a fi eld directly related to writing or journalism, learning how to properly edit other people’s documents and write my own has been an experience that I am sure will serve me well. Th e Abingtonian has allowed me to get involved in the school directly, as the paper is distributed throughout the school and even disseminated on the Abington website. Additionally, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to meet, and email, many underclassmen, who I confi dent will maintain the legacy and integrity of the school paper. If you are interested in joining the newspaper, please do! Not only does working with the school newspaper and other school publications look amazing on college resumes or applications, but it teaches you life skills about working with other people and delegating jobs. Personally, I found it exciting to see my work published in the paper throughout my time in the high school. From early submissions about stress management to college visits to technology, I look at the Abingtonian as an opportunity to distinguish myself in the community.