Ayla Ozturk
I am the section editor and a writer for the News section. I cover major events and have a focus on informing students of what happens in the Visalia Unified School District Boardroom. I work with Ryan Kaspar and Megan Yang to provide Redwood High School quality news. We all have important contributions to the team and help each other be the best journalists possible. You can visit my portfolio here.
Ryan Kaspar
Ryan is part of our News staff and the Gigantea's Managing Editor. Ryan is vital to our team. They are the reason you see Gigantea's work. Ryan not only writes but they publish and occasionally edits our stories. They have an interest in statistics and research, which is very helpful. You can visit their portfolio here.
Megan Yang
Megan is a part of Gigantea's News staff. She not only writes, but she edits our stories as well. Megan has strong interview skills and is fantastic at talking to students. She has creative ideas to help our team do the best possible work. You can visit her portfolio here.
VUSD Board of Education Revises Graduation Requirements
Last Fall, the Visalia Unified School District Board of Education revised the requirements to graduate. Starting with the class of 2028, students will have to complete three years of math instead of two, the current requirement.
I was able to contribute my connections to the school board. Megan Yang got the voices from the class of 2028. Ryan Kaspar contributed extensive research and data analysis. This coverage matters because students are the ones most affected by this decision. They deserve to know what happens in the VUSD Boardroom, the reasoning behind decisions, and how other students feel. Everybody in my team made vital contributions to provide that and even more.
I decided to include this in the staff portfolio because it truly shows how we work as a team. We help each other be the best journalists possible. Megan and Ryan are essential to the team, and I am honored to work with them. I am beyond proud of our work.
Reflection
One goal I have for the section next semester is that we will get stories out faster. This is important because of how fast news moves. We will evaluate our progress by determining the time between when the event happened and when the story was published.
In addition to the above, we will work on ensuring that our work maintains its quality while publishing it in a timely manner. This is important because we want to give Redwood the best news possible. We will evaluate this by continuing to communicate our thoughts.
Another goal I have for our section is to improve our communication. This is important because it allows us to be on the same page, making the publication process streamlined and faster. We will evaluate this by analyzing our communication every so often.
We would also like to incorporate more creativity into our work. This is important because we want readers to engage in our stories and other work we publish. We will evaluate this by analyzing site statistics.