Evie Henderson
It has been one of my greatest honors to have been involved in the Crimson Connection as long as I have! Starting in my freshman year in the journalism prerequisite, I joined because of my interest in writing as a career, but I found a new passion in storytelling. Sophomore year I joined the staff and volunteered myself as the Online Editor. Junior year, I found additional responsibilities through my new title of Managing Editor. I’ve run the publication through the change in teachers, change from newspaper to news magazine, and many changes in staff.
My greatest pride is the recognition I received for my personal columns. I was awarded as the Subjective Writing 1st Runner-Up from the Texas Association of Journalism Educators with a Superior and an Excellent rating on the two columns. I have won other awards for my work, but I’ve never been as proud. Students recognized me from my photo on my second printed column (for better and for worse), and I was surprised how many students I spoke to that related to the secrecy of hiding your identity or the grief from losing a loved one and dementia. I was also surprised at the amount of hate I received this year. This is pretty insignificant to me, as all my close friends know I have a pretty strong ego and an amazing therapist.
I would like to thank my original journalism teacher, Mrs. Lancaster, who I still call Queen Schulte, and of course Ms. Negri, our current advisor and our staff this year. Additional thanks to my favorite convention speakers Scott Winter and David Knight for helping me pursue storytelling and have the guts to publish it. Finally, thanks to all of the readers and sponsors for making our publication possible. I’ll be pursuing magazine publication at the University of New Mexico’s honors college while studying sustainability in agriculture and training for a career as a wedding planner and florist.
Vanessa Tolino
Being an Editor-in-Chief for the Crimson Connection has genuinely been one of the highlights of my high school career. I didn’t think I would end up caring so much about 13 random people, but here we are, a group of talented journalists publishing their last issue of the year. Well, in my case, my last high school issue forever. I never thought I would ever pursue writing in another form other than my diary as a kid, but it seems fate led me right back to my start. I’m not sure where writing will take me in the future, but I am hopeful that I will continue to keep adding words to the many pages I have left in my story. A piece of advice before I finish this up for anyone who might need it: Everything will be perfect in the end, and if it’s not perfect, then it’s not the end. Love y’all lots! This is Vanessa Tolino signing out…
