Fellow Northwestern Medill Cherubs and I visit the Chicago CBS News Station. I watched the 11 a.m. news live and was able to see professional journalists in their element. Photo by Gabrielle Egozi.

Hello, Archer! I hope you all had a wonderful summer filled with relaxation, Charlie XCX’s “Brat” album on repeat and Olympics watch parties with friends and family. 

My name is Surya Patil, and I am the 2024-2025 editor-in-chief of The Oracle. I am writing this letter to introduce myself and share the goals I have to improve our site’s quality and coverage. Additionally, I want to share some exciting changes The Oracle has undergone this past year. 

As a freshman new to Archer in 2021, I had randomly selected the Intro to Journalism course as my elective. Within the first week of classes,  I realized how special the community I had joined was. I looked up to the senior editors at the time. They were charismatic, knowledgeable and welcoming, and I dreamed of being in their shoes one day. They helped me gain a deeper understanding of the role of journalism in our society and realize the amazing opportunity I had to amplify students’ voices in the Archer community. 

For my first “big story” assignment, I wrote about the importance of sports psychology in athletes’ lives. This process, where I listened to fellow student-athletes about their experiences with rigorous training schedules and burnout, was what made me fall in love with journalism. I realized I was helping bring issues to light, and my articles could have a real impact on my community. 

During my sophomore and junior years, I served as the Sports Editor. I absolutely loved highlighting Archer’s sports teams and individual athletes. Mentoring younger staff writers and helping them improve their sports reporting created a more diverse, interesting sports section. 

This past summer, I was lucky enough to participate in the Northwestern Medill Cherubs Program, where I was surrounded by 83 accomplished high school journalists from all over the country. From our professors and these student journalists, I broadened and deepened my journalism skill set, even diving into TV broadcasting and magazine writing. Expert guest speakers discussed their paths in their respective fields, taught us ways to improve our reporting and editing and gave us valuable insights into what a career in journalism actually looks like.  

I am incredibly grateful for all the lessons I have learned from my years on The Oracle, which have made me a better writer, leader and collaborator. I am so excited to lead our publication’s newest chapter. 

This year, our staff has a whopping 41 reporters (our largest number yet!), spread across three sections of journalism. To account for our almost doubled staff number, we have expanded our editorial board to 11 members. We have added a photo editor position, which will be taken on by junior Melinda Wang. Additionally, seniors Siena Ferraro and Zoe Gazzuolo will serve in the new assistant editor-in-chief positions. 

We are also so excited to welcome five columnists — three seniors and two sophomores — who will be writing monthly columns on topics ranging from Latine identity to theater culture. We will have five podcasts in our second year of our contributing podcaster program. Five seniors and one junior will be discussing various subjects from sexual education to sports. 

We are planning to continue growing our social media presence to further connect with our audience, specifically focusing on our Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook accounts. If you have not already, you can follow our accounts to ensure you are in the know of all things Archer. It is a great way to stay up-to-date with our coverage.

Finally, we aim to serve as a platform that represents your voices. If you have a message or opinion to share with the community, we encourage you to submit a Letter to the Editor through the “Submit Letter” tab on our site. Please feel free to reach out to our editorial board by emailing [email protected] with any questions, comments or feedback. 

Thank you so much for reading! 

Sincerely,

Editor-in-Chief Surya Patil