As editors-in-chief for the 95th year of the U-High Midway, we have three main goals for the coming school year. We want to show the true nature of U-High, keep the student body up to date on news with our website, and ensure the truth of our reporting in a time when journalists face intense scrutiny.

People craft perfect portraits for their Instagrams, Facebooks and Snapchats. We see those profiles and reflect on our own lives, which often seem sad in comparison. Even though it’s unrealistic, we can’t help it. It’s part of being human. In the coming year we will work to dispel confusion and assumption, and home in on what students, faculty and administrators are like as real people. Through news, personality profiles, cultural analyses, reviews, sports, leisure and more we will work to reveal U-High as it actually is: what the administration does, what students think and feel, how our community fits into Chicago and the world.

As our world becomes more digitized, the Midway has, too. Our new website, uhighmidway.com, will serve as a more flexible way to keep U-High students, administrators, parents and alumni informed and entertained. This platform will also give us the opportunity to approach storytelling in different and engaging ways than have been possible for our staff in the past. Our printed paper will still be just as robust and thorough in reporting as it has always been, and it will continue to be a focal aspect of our organization, but we are excited for the new world of possibilities and stories that the website offers.

While we know it has been said more than ever in the last two years as the media has faced increased distrust, we want to stress the importance of journalism. Its purpose on a high school scale is to provide you with school-related news, to cover student activities and to showcase student perspectives. We recognize that it is more important now than ever to fight that distrust by reporting thoroughly and overtly, and we take seriously our role as your source of school-wide information, accurate reporting and fierce advocacy.