The Pinion started its 98th year as a part of McKinley High School’s pride and tradition. The staff includes two returning students, who will serve as the editorial board and nine new staffers.

Junior Alexandria Buchanan is editor-in-chief. This is her third year on The Pinion staff. She told the new staff not to procrastinate and at the same time enjoy themselves.

“Try not to wait ‘til the very, very last minute … and be sure you guys have fun,” Buchanan said.

In addition to procrastination, she said a lack of passion is a problem that can happen in the process of finishing the newspaper.

“The worst thing is when people don’t write articles or, when they do turn it in, it’s really, really short and we can’t use it. We have to edit it more and add a lot of things and get more interviews and stuff and it’s really last minute to do,” Buchanan said.

Junior Kevin Ku joined The Pinion last year as a reporter. This year, he returns as assistant editor.

When asked about his expectations for the staff, he responded by saying he wanted everyone to get along and do their articles.

“I just want people to write their articles, I guess, finish them on time and everybody is respectful to each other,” Ku said.

He told the new staff they need to be patient and flexible.

“When writing a paper, it’s going to be a really long process … You might get stuck or decide that you can change the story you want to write about,” Ku said.

The long process of publishing a story is guided by The Pinion’s adviser, Cynthia Reves. Reves has been working as The Pinion’s adviser for about nine years now. When she first started advising The Pinion, there were only four members, and the class has slowly, yet steadily grown over the years. This year Reves welcomes a class of eleven students.

When talking to the new staffers, she talked about her position as adviser and how she helps them produce The Pinion.  

“I don’t write for The Pinion. You guys write for The Pinion … So my job is to help you guys come up with story ideas, find people to talk to, write good articles,” Reves said. “I hope that you guys will try to think of deeper stories, think outside the box, be a little crazy, be curious.”

Ashanti Brown, freshman, and new staffer of The Pinion, had this to say about her expectations of the class and the paper itself. She listed a few things but mostly talked about how she wants her work to be.

“I want to turn things in on time, know what to write about, make sure it’s neat,” she said.