D is c ove ri ng he r ng p a ss io n fo r w ri ti a t a yo un g a g e, a im s Ath en a Wu ‘2 4 ut h to em p ow er yo m th ro ug h jo ur na lis e in ng a nd c re a te c ha o ne he r c o m m un it y e. a rt ic le a t a ti m
BY SO O M IN KO H
YO UJO O LEE ART & DE SIG N BY
T
he world of writing always intrigued Athena Wu ’24. From crafting intricate lines of poetry to illustrating magical worlds through the genre of fantasy, Wu has always been entranced by literature. It was at the end of her fifth grade year, however, when her passion for writing and vision to better represent her peers came to fruition when she launched the Rocket Times, Van Allen Elementary’s student-run newspaper. “I felt frustrated that people looked down upon elementary school kids and thought we couldn’t do many things, so I wanted to change that. I
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wanted to prove that elementary school kids could do things,” Wu said. Wu gathered a group of her classmates with the hope of creating an outlet where she could further develop her writing skills and create lasting change in her school’s community. Despite beginning with just four members, Wu was determined to pursue this vision. “I wanted this newspaper to bring more life to the school because it felt like elementary school students did not know of our school events to look forward to,” Wu said. “I thought that maybe with a newspaper, we would be able to bring light to these events and have more communication between the younger grades and older grades.”
Wu began by touring the West High newsroom and reading through stacks of previous WSS publications. Inspired by the bustling energy and environment of the WSS, Wu used her fifth grade classroom as her own newsroom where she held weekly meetings with her peers. “We would start our club meetings with an icebreaker, then mostly discuss ideas that we had and could improve upon. We then started to draft articles and copy and paste them to the online platform that we used,” Wu said. Weeks after their initial meeting, the first issue of the Rocket Times was published on Smore with the help of a group of WSS staffers. From articles about handmade slime and fidget spinners to Mother’s Day celebrations, the first pub-
