Pictured above (from left): Lauren Cohen, Kyle Comito, and Madison Gallo. The Smoke Signal will transition from Comito as Editor in Chief to Cohen and Gallo both at the helm for the 2017-2018 school year.
Passing the torch to next year’s EICs
A lot can change in four years. Never as a freshman would I have thought that I would be here saying goodbye to a newspaper that I have grown to love over the course of the last few years.
Heck, The Smoke Signal as we know it today did not even exist four years ago. The daily online website that students can check whenever they want was only conceived in my sophomore year at Pascack Valley. Before that, The Smoke Signal could only be read in hard copies, with about four issues published each year.
And yet, it feels like those days were centuries ago. I cannot remember a time before I was ripping through stories for AP style errors, contemplating the best headlines, or calling my fellow editors late at night to look through stories together.
Becoming a part of The Smoke Signal as a sophomore was among the best decisions I made in high school. The friends I made, the skills I learned, and the experiences I had as a part of this team are irreplaceable. The people involved with this publication are truly special.
It starts at the top. Nothing that The Smoke Signal has accomplished these past three years would be possible without our humble Archbishop (better known as our faculty advisor), Mr. Bill Rawson. Coming from a background of journalism and newspaper writing, Rawson was the perfect candidate to take over operations three years ago and spearhead our move online. On a daily basis, he uses his experience from both teaching and writing to make our publication the absolute best it can be.
While he does not always get the credit he deserves (or even wants), Rawson is the true hero, backbone, and quarterback of our newspaper. I am not sure if some of the people on our own staff even realize how much effort he puts in behind the scenes, not only for the excellence of the paper, but also for the well-being of our staff. Rawson lives and breathes The Smoke Signal. Every award, recognition, and compliment we receive can be directly attributed to his hard work and dedication.
Simply put, The Smoke Signal is Rawson’s brainchild, and I am forever grateful for the daily contributions he has made to the website, to our staff, and to me.
Pictured above (from left): Jamie Ryu, Sarah Schmoyer, Curstine Guevarra, Jake Aferiat, Kyle Comito, Madison Gallo, Kayla Barry, and Lauren Cohen. The 2016-2017 Smoke Signal Editorial Staff presents their plaque for being named the GSSPA’s Distinuighed Journalism Program for New Jersey’s Division B at October’s GSSPA Conference.
I would be remiss not to talk about the fantastic and dedicated staff that I have been privileged to work with over the last few years. From before my time to after my time, The Smoke Signal has introduced me to some of the most hard-working and genuinely caring people I have ever met in my life.
I would like to recognize our amazing editing staff for this past school year: Jake Aferiat, Kayla Barry, Lauren Cohen, Madison Gallo, Curstine Guevarra, Jamie Ryu, and Sarah Schmoyer. They have all put in an incredible amount of effort into our operation, and we could not function without the dedication of each and every one of them. It is important to remember that our paper is an extracurricular activity, which means that all of our staffers sacrifice their free time to participate.
I would like to thank Aferiat and Ryu specifically, who are graduating alongside me this year, for sticking with our paper until the very end. They are two of our paper’s most talented writers and editors, and they have been doing great work since before I even joined the team. Aferiat has become a model for how to write and tweet about everything PV sports, and Ryu can write a breaking news story more quickly and efficiently than anyone I know. I’m sure the skills they picked up as part of The Smoke Signal will assist them in all of their future endeavours.
Words cannot express how much I will miss our weekly editor’s meetings— which sometimes extended as late as nine o’clock at night, our always active and comical group chat, and our daily bickering and minor feuds. We were not always 100 percent focused, but we always came together to complete the necessary tasks in the end.
It would be selfish of me not to recognize the efforts that last year’s Editor in Chief, Vanessa Rutigliano, made to bring The Smoke Signal to where it is today. Vanessa, thank you for believing in me enough to make me an editor last year, thank you for having such an unwaveringly positive and lively personality, and thank you for raising the bar of what a high school newspaper could achieve. Without you, the stories we produce would not even be close to the quality or quantity of what we publish today.
That being said, I am very proud to announce that Cohen and Gallo will be the Editors in Chief in the upcoming 2017- 2018 school year. With a publication our size—that produces the amount of content that we do—having two people in command is necessary to continue onwards and upwards.
This year, The Smoke Signal won the Garden State Scholastic Press Association’s Distinguished Journalism Program Award for New Jersey’s Division B, a high honor that comes from our team’s enthusiasm and devotion. With Cohen and Gallo in charge, I am confident that this team can accomplish even more next year, and for years to come. Cohen is the longest tenured Smoke Signal member and one of the most skilled editors I have seen. Meanwhile, Gallo has a voice and a command that will translate well to a position of leadership. I have little doubt that this pairing will succeed in both working together and balancing each other’s strengths and weaknesses next year.
I cannot imagine what my senior year would have looked like if I was not the Editor in Chief of The Smoke Signal. It was both an honor and a privilege to serve this publication, and I cannot wait to check the website daily from my dorm room at Rutgers University next year.