With this school year coming to an end, the Nest and Nestline seek to continue their legacy by selecting new, ambitious leaders to guide the staff towards success. The new editors include rising junior Baneen Rizvi as the Editor-in-Chief of the Nest as well as rising seniors Sydney Jackson and Shriya Rajagopalan as the Co-Editors-in-Chiefs of the Nestline. Although these new leaders plan to keep many of the preserved traditions of the  publications, they also hope to pave their own path to accomplish more for the community and create new rituals.

“I would love to keep the closeness in the community,” said Jackson, “However, there is still a division between us, so I hope to close that gap for next year.”

Similar to Jackson, Rajagopalan wants the staff to become closer and really be comfortable with one another. She plans to accomplish this goal by organizing more social events outside of school such as a brunch at a local cafe which she is able to do through her role as Social Media Manager. Rajagopalan also expresses that building friendships within the community makes the class more fun and enjoyable for the students.

“It’s important to get to know each other before we work together,” said Rajagopalan. “It makes the team more communicative with each other. If there’s a problem, it would be easier to get it out into the open and we can resolve it easier.”

Even though this past year was her first official year on staff, Rizvi was able to get into the swing of things when it came to meeting deadlines and designing creative pages for the magazine. This success was due to her consistent work ethic and guidance from her editors. As a result, Rizvi explains that she is determined to maintain the tradition of having a learning session with new staff writers when it comes to designing their first layouts and writing their articles for the first issue so they can become aware of the basic expectations of the cycles. Rizvi describes the team dynamic of JCrew as special as she is always able to find a common ground with the staff while also cultivating diverse ideas.

“It’s definitely a unique type of bond. We obviously do extremely different things than we would with classmates in other classes, we’re coming together to do something we enjoy, whether it be writing stories or taking photos,” said Rizvi. “I think that’s what makes it special.”

In the beginning of next year, Rizvi hopes to be upfront about the procedure of the publication while also keeping the atmosphere light and welcoming. She believes that building an informal and more familiar feeling within the staff would strengthen the connection within the staff.

“I don’t really want an extremely professional or awkward environment with everyone,” said Rizvi. “I think that really ruins the mood of the magazine and working through all the cycles starts to feel like more of a chore.”

Sharing the same interest of being straightforward and direct with the staff, Jackson looks towards self-improvement as an editor. She plans on editing their drafts more intensely as she believed she had help back this year in order to preserve a friendly dynamic. However, now Jackson insists that constructive criticism encourages growth in both writing and mindset.

“People are more likely to try harder to improve themselves if the piece is graded poorly,” said Jackson. “It gives them motivation.”