By Bonnie Shao, Nina Gersen, and Bella Holt, Editor-in-Chief and Banner Executives |

To Leela, Lara, and Louisa,

Through long layouts, lunchtime meetings, and late-night edits, you have been an inspiration to us all at The Banner. In February, you launched an online initiative that made The Banner accessible to the wider Winsor family and alumnae community. In March, you invited a speaker to share her experiences in journalism and inspire us as student journalists. You never failed to answer our last-minute texts about layout formatting and InDesign struggles. We thank you for your dedication, passion, and leadership!

Leela’s journey with The Banner began due to her love of writing. During her freshman year club fair, she “saw a club where she could write,” and knew that she had to join The Banner. She quickly realized that “writing a news article was not like writing an essay”; yet, she was determined to keep writing for The Banner. She eventually gravitated towards writing news articles and became co news editors with Louisa during their junior year. Leela is grateful for the experiences that she gained through writing for The Banner because “there were a lot of times where I wouldn’t have learned about something if I wasn’t interviewing somebody about it, or wasn’t going to an event to write about it for The Banner. The Banner pushed me to do things that I wouldn’t have otherwise.” 

Lara’s introduction to The Banner was an overwhelming one, to say the least. While attending the introductory meeting in Class V, she was met with a sea of attendees so vast that the meeting had to be held in the Wildcat Room. Despite being initially intimidated by the club, Lara decided to pursue it when she realized that she could “fully express who [she was] on the page.” Since then, Lara has written articles on topics ranging from generative AI in the classroom, to TimeOut’s untimely closure and rescue, to seniors’ celebrity lookalikes. According to Lara, the key to her Banner experience has been learning  to trust her gut: “Don’t spend too much time worrying about what other people want. Spend more time just letting your heart out on the page, and it can always be revised from there.”

Louisa’s interest in journalism began at a young age: “My journalism career started in fifth grade, when I started a newspaper with my friends at my old school. And then, in seventh grade, we also noticed that my middle school did not have a newspaper. So I, again, created a new newspaper.” Her first article for The Banner was about the 2022 midterm elections, for which she emailed (and received responses from) both then-Governor General Maura Healey and U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley. Louisa’s passion and initiative have remained evident throughout her time as an Executive Editor. Leela, Lara, and Louisa: you have left your mark on The Banner forever, and we can’t wait to see what you do next! We hope you will continue journalism in the future and that you will stay connected with The Banner community here at Winsor! We will miss you!