I can’t thank each of you enough for being so willing to develop the gifts God gave you by being on staff this year. You all have different talents, and I consider myself lucky to have watched our paper become better because of the time and effort you were willing to put into it. I would like to use this opportunity to thank you, because your individual contributions were what made this year a great experience for me.

Thank you Caitlin, Maddix, and our fantastic sports writers for being able to produce under pressure. You did a wonderful job working under what were some pretty stressful deadlines! You were creative with what you covered, and your articles continued to improve as the year went on.

Thank you Peter, Kendall, and all of the A&E staff for the creativity you brought to your section! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about things like movies, jazz band, and the eateries of Cedar Rapids. I loved reading A&E each issue because I could tell that there was passion behind what was produced.

Thank you Josie, Sidney, Ellie, Katie, Charlie, and the rest of our fantastic design teams! Your designs were always creative, and I appreciated being able to rely on you all to always produce high-quality pages each issue. I really enjoyed watching you push each other to become better and using one another as sources of creativity! Your ideas and designs were outside of the box, and I always learned something new. I was also very impressed by your creative uses of flow charts.

Thank you Nick, Anna, and our opinion writers for your dedication to the opinion section. Your section was constantly pushing readers to not only think about their opinions, but also to think about why they held those opinions. This was very impressive. We may not have answered the traditional age old question, but we did learn a lot about red velvet!

Thank you Jeff, Ellie, and our news writers for your reliability and flexibility this year. You handled the changes to your section well, and you did a fantastic job of consistently producing high-quality work. I still want to know what happens on Kairos though!

To Emma and Emiko, you both did an outstanding job of using your unique gifts to do your jobs to the best of your abilities. Our paper would not have been nearly as organized or as photo-filled without the two of you. You had jobs that no one else could have done quite like you.

To Jess, Nick, and Shelby, thank you for stepping into very unique roles to help produce a higher quality paper. You consistently helped to improve the efficiency of press day, which I can’t thank you enough for. We couldn’t have been so successful without the three of you!

Being editor-in-chief is an experience I am truly grateful for. I want to thank each of you for making it an experience I will never forget.

Gwen Cataldo

Editor-in-Chief