The Cougar Star
The Cougar star is Ann Arbor Clague Middle School's newspaper. During freshman year of high school I alongside former EIC Julie Heng and former Managing Editor Mishal Charania helped restart The Cougar Star. This was right before the pandemic had started. Attending Clague Middle School, I was beyond excited to teach a new generation of students about journalism since it plays an integral role in our society. Now, every single Monday after school I go to Clague to help build a new community of storytellers. Whenever I read their stories or see their stories pop up in my inbox, my heart smiles.
Top: I was interviewing Satvika, who won runner-up for Aspiring journalist of the year and is now the Website Managing Editor of The Huron Emery. Bottom: On the right we have Irene Kim, a reporter for The Cougar Star. She wanted to write a news story. I suggested writing about the new club - Clague Business Professionals of America. I sat down and drafted interview questions. We marched up to where the club meeting happens. Irene showed so much confidence and assurance as she conducted the interviews. Middle: I am working with Jayani Tavane on her review of Anime show "Haikyuuu' .
During the pandemic, we held virtual Cougar Star sessions from 7-8 a.m. on Mondays and on Tuesdays for the yearbook, Paw Prints. OC, Mishal, and I would make the best of it -- attending two days of sessions. I even presented my slideshow on the guide to Opinion Writing. Mrs. Badalamente uses this at the middle school AND high school levels. I teach a multitude of mini-lessons from photojournalism to interview tips. During the pandemic, I trained members on navigating the sno website when it comes to publishing stories and graphics. I also taught them to redesign the entire website. It has been a pleasure watching it evolve on a year-to-year basis. I also convinced several of them to join/contribute to The Emery, and they did; Emily Hu, Satvika Ramanathan, Anjali Nadarajah, Hemanth Tavane Shivakumar, Tanishka Tewari are the future of Huron Publications. I cannot wait to pass on the torch to them.
It started off with three people and now plenty of Cougar Star alumni are coming to Clague. Pictured above is Satvika Ramanathan, former EIC (middle) working with Lakshya Jaiganesh (left) and Mia Lin (right), who are EIC's of Paw Prints and Cougar Star.
For the yearbook during the virtual year, the theme was "[UN]." I had a blast working with the yearbook staff. [Un]fortunately, due to the yearbook and newspaper being simultaneous, I work with the Cougar Star mainly now.
