Dear San Marcos,
As we write our final farewell to you and begin a new chapter in our respective lives, we reflect on all the memories, skills, friendships, and more that The King’s Page and San Marcos have given us.
The three of us started working for The King’s Page as freshmen attending school on Zoom. Not only was it our first year on The King’s Page, but it was also our advisor, Mrs. Willbanks’, first year. Together, with help from editors who have since graduated and moved onto higher education, we created The King’s Page that you know and love now. From newspaper layout changes to redesigning our website to creating the new King’s Page Instagram account, all of our hard work has paid off and we are now able to pass on a version of The King’s Page that we are proud of to the next generation.
Because of The King’s Page, the three of us have attended many events that we would have never had the opportunity to before, such as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF), a national journalism conference (JEA/NSPA) in San Francisco, San Marcos Galas, Alumni events, School Board meetings, The Santa Barbara Education Foundation Celebrations, and beyond. These have allowed us to become closer to our community and meet new people.
Noelle’s favorite memory from her time on The King’s Page was getting the opportunity to attend the SBIFF as press. She had so much fun interviewing celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and Charles Melton and experiencing what it is like to be a journalist in the world outside of San Marcos. She enjoyed working alongside other local journalists on the red carpet, and connecting with student journalists from various high schools in Santa Barbara. She also loved going to pick up the printed issues of The King’s Page from NewsPress. The car ride over was always chaotic but so much fun, and the Kyle’s Kitchen afterwards was rewarding.
One of Liv’s favorite memories from her time on The King’s Page was attending the JEA/NSPA Conference in San Francisco. There, she learned about her media rights and responsibilities as a journalist, how to become a better reporter, and much more. She remembers meeting fellow editors from different states in the conference room where other school newspapers would trade their print issues and discuss their own layouts. Making those connections and having those discussions inspired her to come back to King’s Page and redesign our layouts and website these past years. She will take the memories made there with her fellow KP editors forever.
Evelina’s favorite memory as a member of The King’s Page was simply being a member of The King’s Page and doing layouts even if it meant coming in early, late, or on the weekend. For her, getting to sit around peers with the same passion and care for the school newspaper as she had was priceless because so many emotions, lessons, and memories were formed by just sitting around the table, editing articles, interviewing people of different expertise, cracking jokes and laughing, eating a cheeseburger, lining up text boxes, proofing each caption, and so on. She found excitement in learning or teaching something new every year, every day, and every minute of being a member of The King’s Page. She wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Next year, all three of us will continue our involvement in journalism in college. Noelle will be attending Northwestern University to major in journalism at the Medill School of Journalism and hopes to join The Daily Northwestern newspaper. Liv will be attending Fairfield University also majoring in Journalism where she plans on expanding her journalism knowledge through their newspaper, radio station, and broadcast station. Evelina will be attending University of California, Berkeley to major in English with a minor in journalism and hopes to join The Daily Californian with the assistance of her journalism experience.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the people who have supported The King’s Page and us throughout the years. Thank you to all the teachers who allowed us to use class time to work on the newspaper, and to all those teachers and staff who have made time for us to interview them. A special thank you to Mr. Fiedorek, Mr. Oleson, and Mr. Clow who dealt with all three EICs in the same class!
We also want to thank all the journalism students who came before us, who taught us valuable lessons and skills and helped make The King’s Page the best it can be. We would like to give a shoutout to Elizabeth Léka and Leo Metzger from whom we received our Editor-in-Chief positions, and Sofia Wallace and Mia Cannizzaro. Liv will be following in Mia’s footsteps by going to Fairfield, and Evelina will be following Sofia to Berkeley. We also want to give a special shout out to Joey Macko, who was the sole Editor-in-Chief when we were freshmen and who has served as our inspiration for the past four years. We would also like to thank the future generation of journalism students for stepping up to fill our positions and having patience while we teach you what has been taught to us.
Lastly, but most definitely not least, we would like to give a huge thank you to Mrs. Willbanks who has been a remarkable mentor and mother figure to us. She has known us since we were freshman, new to San Marcos, new to high school, and fresh out of Zoom school. She has watched us grow up and has taught us countless lessons and skills beyond those in the I-7, has supported us through everything, and has been kind enough to deal with us and our constant shenanigans throughout the years. We would not be who we are today without her mentorship and she has made it possible for us to continue our journalism careers in college.
With all that being said, we three cannot wait to read the future KP issues and we hope other students find joy in journalism like we did.
Signing off one last time, KP FOREVER,
Evelina, Liv, and Noelle
