Welcome back, Archer Community!

I hope you’ve had a great summer and are excited for the 2017-2018 school year to begin. I’m Cybele Zhang and will be serving as Editor-in-Chief this year. I hope this letter will help you get to know me a little better as I explain more about myself and what I hope to achieve on the Oracle this year.

As a senior, writing this is certainly bittersweet. I have spent the last seven years of my life in these halls, so I really want to make this year the best yet. I joined the Oracle as a sophomore, and later that year was promoted to Sports Editor. I continued to hold that position throughout junior year, and I focused on expanding the section — adding rosters and schedules to make it easier for fans to keep up with their favorite teams. I highly recommend checking out that tab on the site to see what the fall sports have accomplished thus far.

One of the qualities I value most about Archer is the open and respectful discourse that the school community fosters. But why confine those valuable conversations within the walls of Archer? Through the Oracle I hope to increase outlets for student voice to foster communication and change. With Letters to the Editor, any Archer girl can share her opinion on what she sees as important without having to physically be in the journalism class. If you ever feel your voice is not being heard, please do not hesitate to share your opinion through the Oracle.

Also this year, we will be adding correspondent positions, where any student can apply to regularly write news articles for the Oracle. With this, the Oracle can increase the breadth of content covered and students involved in writing. The exact application has not been released yet, but if you are interested more information will be coming.

The Editorial Board also hopes to increase the number of editorials we write this school year. We hope to discuss major issues and events both within and beyond the Archer community through monthly articles, so look out for the September piece soon.

I also encourage teachers to work our articles into classes. There is some great, thought-provoking content on the site — specifically under features — which can easily tie into various curricula. The site has articles that break down important topics such as the mental health, the Japanese Internment and sustainable fashion, which can supplement other educational resources. In my own experience, I have found journalistic writing is a great way to simplify a complex idea, making it easier to comprehend and research.

I want the Oracle to be every Archer girl’s go to news outlet. I hope to cover events, highlight community members and share valuable opinions from diverse backgrounds and spanning a wide range of subjects. But to do this, the Oracle should be as accessible as possible. We already use Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat, but I hope to increase their impact this year. With regular coverage, live streams and publicity we can cover more and produce even better content for you.

Especially with Archer Forward commencing this school year, I hope to provide timely insight that may be hard to find elsewhere — so go ahead and bookmark the home page. We work really hard on this site so please utilize it!

Do you have any questions about coverage? Do you feel we have been neglecting your club? Please let us know. You can send questions by contacting [email protected]; we love your feedback.

Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait for you to see everything we produce this year!

Carpe diem,

Cybele Zhang

Editor-in-Chief 2017-2018