Juniors Gabby Freire and Ellie Mitchell have officially been named co-editors of the Panorama for the 2021-2022 school year. 

This is a special case because Chapman has never had more than one editor before. 

In a normal year, any returning staff member who is interested would apply for the position and go through an application process. Candidates have also done interviews with Principal Andrew McMillan in order to give them a little real-world experience. 

This year, though, was different because the two actually approached adviser Alex Hollis with the idea to ask his thoughts on the idea of co-editors. 

”We have a unique situation with next year’s returning staff being relatively new and relatively small, and we only had a couple of people who were interested in the position,” Hollis said. 

Freire and Mitchell both have only been on staff for one year, and it was decided that sharing the load would ease the pressure that comes with the editor position.

With this new duo, there is a lot to look forward to. 

“I’m confident that they are going to be a great team and work well together,” Hollis said. “Seeing the dynamic of two people working to make the decision instead of one and seeing them as a duo and having to deal with what if one thinks one thing and one thinks the other will be interesting, but I think it will also push them to take more than just one viewpoint into consideration.”

At the beginning of this year, the two were definitely not expecting to be named editors. 

“I did not think in any way that next year I would be named in such high power,” Freire said.

“It feels like a big responsibility that I’m ready to take on, and I’m excited to see what comes next year, and I’m overall excited to have a new staff and be one of the leaders on that staff,” Mitchell said.

The new editorial team is looking forward to making a memorable book.

“Our biggest goal is to make a good yearbook that everyone on the staff can be proud of,” Mitchell said.

Senior Alex Rhinehart, the editor of this year’s yearbook, left the two new editors with some words of encouragement:

“Don’t sweat the small stuff because the year will go by really fast so just soak up everything you can because this is going to be such a wonderful journey and probably one of your greatest joys and an amazing high school experience.”