After months of work, we are a few days away from the biggest day for The Voice. Brown and I will be traveling Friday evening to Seattle, Washington for the National Scholastic Press Association annual Spring conference where the Pacemaker award ceremony will take place. This award is equivalent to the Puiltzer Prize for high schoolers.

Although I designed the site and helped to organize it, I don’t take very much credit. Most of it should go to the staff and editorial board. I know this is cheezy, but I have to make sure people realize how amazing my staff is.

I first have to give credit to Brown. He is a my mentor and is an amazing journalism advisor. He probably would hate me for publishing this, but he didn’t know anything about going online. For him to take the leap and jump on board and help was amazing.

My current editors are the ones who make it happen. My current managing editor, Joe Cristo has been the driving force for the website. Almost every article you read Joe has edited or assisted in some way. He knows more about what is happening content wise on the site than anyone else. He has been a life saver for me and has been one of the biggest assets to The Voice’s success this year.

My associate editors Holly Baldacci, Yazmin Domingez, and Kierra Renwick have stayed up all night preparing the articles you read. They go through and read, edit, fact check, edit photos and format the story to fit on the site. They also provide the ideas for the writers and provide them guidance to find sources for their stories.

To launch the program online involved a lot of people including Marissa Burkhart, Director of Educational Technology, Dr. John Burkey, Superintendent of Consolidated School District 158, Mike Moan, Chief Academic Officer and most of all our principal Dave Johnson who has been a huge supporter of the program and our goals to go online.

It has been a collective effort to bring this program where it is and I couldn’t do it without my amazing staff, Mr. Brown and the readers. This Saturday I hope that Mr. Brown and I come home with a Pacemaker plaque in our luggage, but if we don’t I am so proud of the staff of The Voice. We have accomplished so much in our first year online. It can only go up from here.

Thank you,

Michael Geheren

Editor in Chief