Written by Malak E... Edited by Pranav C
What started with a eureka moment between two former T.L. Kennedy senior students during class have now inspired a new initiative to inform students about issues occurring in the world around them - locally, nationally, and globally. The word “news” seems to drive many teenagers away from exploring the stresses that come with being informed. Although we, as students, live in a society where our lives are directly impacted by the headlines, most teenagers today merely offer a glance to the sight of a news headline. As we took a deep dive into the topic of being aware and SNA’s root cause, we asked the two T.L. Kennedy Alumni who started it about what inspired them to start the Student News Association (SNA), the obstacles that they might have encountered, as well as to what extent they think a high school student should be aware of issues around them.
“How and why did the SNA start?”
SNA stands for the ‘Student News Association’ which was founded in the 2019-2020 school year by two TLK graduates, Ayushka Tiwary and Natalie Lam and continues to be a trusted source of news and information for TLK students. While they were both students themselves who wanted to educate their peers about their community, national issues, and global issues, they wanted to learn throughout the process. When asked, Natalie said that: “On the of
offhand, while I attempt to learn more, if the results are interesting and worthy of sharing, I hope both readers and future members of SNA will realize there’s more to life than just what you learn in school. Make more out of yourself while we’re still young”.
For Ayushka and Natalie, creating the SNA was about sparking the passion of TLK students to learn and read more as they embark on one of the most important periods of their lives.
“We hoped that informing students about these problems would spark meaningful conversation, and even provoke some to take action,” Ayushka responded.
As this idea became a reality, Natalie and Ayushka wanted it to be implemented within a school club where various passionate TLK students could express their opinions and share valuable information. Moreover, they formed the SNA with the guidance of the 2019-2020 SNA teacher advisor, Ms. Hill and the approval of the Vice Principals. After the approval, the SNA started forming their group of writers, editors, graphic designers, and audio engineers. However, the only challenge Ayushka and Natalie had faced was making the tough decisions of accepting a certain number of applicants out of the many they had received, as mentioned by Ayushka, “In other words, getting together a strong team. To our surprise, we got an overwhelming number of applications which relieved some stress, but we were faced with some tough decisions. It was a good learning experience and at the end of the day I think we both made some really good choices because we had the pleasure of working with a great team of like-minded and driven students.”
“Staying Aware Shows You Care”
“Staying Aware Shows You Care”, the famous slogan that embodies the purpose of the SNA. This slogan appealed to Ayushka and Natalie because it demonstrated a deeper understanding of what being an aware citizen is. As mentioned by Natalie, the inspiration behind the slogan was ensuring the message of not only self awareness but the drive to taking initiative was being delivered, “Taking the initiative to keep up with the ongoing news beyond our school environment demonstrates an eagerness to expand our world view and learn more about the subject of humanity. Being aware allows us to become a participating member of society rather than just an observer of the sidelines. In essence, gaining knowledge and awareness of the world is part of our continuing growth through life”. For Natalie and Ayushka, staying aware is important as it allows us to immerse ourselves in the real world rather than rely on others for potentially false information, in other words, being leaders, not followers. Although many teenagers and high schoolers today don’t find the news appealing or interesting to read, it’s important to pass along information about important topics and issues until someone decides to take the lead and change this issue. A particularly well known example of this would be Greta Thunberg who, in August 2018, at age 15, started spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign “School strike for climate”. If she wasn’t aware and actively engaged in staying informed, she wouldn’t have been able to lead change and inspire others to advocate against climate change. Both Ayushka and Natalie mentioned that, “Highschool can be a busy time for most students which is understandable. However, we all spend so much time on our phones and social media, that we tend to get most of our news from those platforms which can be a problem”. It is important to take about 10-20 minutes everyday to catch up on news whether locally or globally. Ayushka and Natalie left us, TLK students, with great advice that we could all learn from, “Open your mind to the world. If anything, learning has benefits beyond just increasing your knowledge. You gain empathy for others by learning more about other’s lives, insight towards the movements occurring in society, etc. With all the political and social movements happening, not to mention COVID-19, it’s extremely important to be well aware of the changes occurring. Not only is it interesting to be alive during events that will most definitely be recorded in future textbooks, awareness allows us to understand the details of what’s going on, keeps us safe and rational, make logical decisions, and perhaps we can use foresight to prepare for future events and keep us on our toes”.
Knowledge in students today can help create a future society that is insightful, empathetic, and helpful. As more students contribute to their society collectively, more people will be encouraged to join in due to the influence created by doing the little things everyday such as reading news articles, watching the news, and taking action. We, at SNA, strive to ensure that students are aware of important news while attempting to learn more about our world through writing, and contributing to articles as a team. If you are interested in making a change and contributing to a student-led news association please email thetlksna@gmail.com.
Here's a take on freshmen, Hannah, about joining SNA!
"I am a grade nine student new to TL Kennedy Secondary School, and when I found out about the SNA I was really drawn towards it. I was initially interested in joining the SNA because I loved to write. Taking a further look into what they were about I learned that their goal was for students at TLK to be informed about events happening locally but also worldwide. Getting to join the SNA was a true honour because I believed that what they were doing was so important and special. What I love most about being in the SNA besides the share of a common goal, is getting to work with others who share the same interest for writing, helping others, and a love for truth seeking. I was really lucky that I got to become a part of their team."- Hannah Franklin