I think this year’s staff, although there were only 13 students, held their own in both Fall, learning the basics of Journalistic writing, and in Spring, where they had to write their own stories. I am very proud of this years’ staff, and am saddened to see them go on – although they add to the amazing Stampede legacy of writers and their amazing stories will be always on display to be read in the future..

One thing I hope these writers know and understand is that they are amazing writers – they have come so far from their Fall writing selves, relying on the outline to do their writing, and blooming into independent writers that have to come up with their own story ideas. I know that is chaotic and challenging, but they each came up with their own articles and pushed through to the end of every upload week, working on one or more articles every five class periods. It sounds long, but when you are unleashed to work on your own story, the time is eaten quickly.

As a former journalist myself, I am always proud of students and their growth throughout the year. I hope they take each thing they have learned and apply it beyond the school, into their high school career.

2025-2026 Stampede Staff… Run, Mustangs…. RUN!

The 2025-2026 Stampede writers were asked to reflect on their time as a Staff Writer. They each contributed to common questions, showcasing their time and talents.

What did you learn about yourself in this class? 

In this class I learned that I write better than I thought I did. – Javan Smith

One thing I’ve learned about myself in this class is that I like to give my reasons and evidence I find for my claims. – Bement Aregaw

In this class, I learned that I can be a lot more creative than I think. – Erick Montano

Something I learned about from this class is that I am a better writer than I thought I was. I always did not think I was a good writer until I wrote about “Do athletes have trouble with academic learning?” I love how I wrote that article and all the questions I had asked as well. – Jada Chavez

Something I learned about myself in this class is that I am more creative than I think I am, although it may take me a minute to come up with a few things I still can come up with good things to write about. – Cristy Mejia

Something I learned in this class is that I can widen my writing opportunities in various sections of ideas, properties and styles. I can freely write ideas and give myself space and time to focus on things I was always interested in, giving myself a time to embrace the writer within me I can use my influence to tell people about things people are curious to know about, and maybe make a writers movement amongst the creativity of humanity and its selective writers. – Ja’Nyiah Agent

I learned I’m a better writer. – Sophie Ocampo

I learned a lot to be honest. My research and writing skills have improved at a great rate. – Nashrah Ali

What I learned about myself in this class is how much I love writing articles about things I am interested in. I also learned how fun writing can be, since I started writing articles in this class I learned how to be more articulate with my writing and go into more detail about things especially in essays. – Arianna Dubois

In this class I learned that I actually enjoyed writing and that I could be more creative. – Leo Furr

One thing I learned about myself was being patient when writing and staying organized. – Leah Shelema

What was the best article you wrote? 

The best article I wrote was “The Quality of Our Water” because of the amount of time and effort I put into making it. – Javan

In this class, my best article I’ve written is “Are energy drinks bad for teens?”  – Bement

In this class, the best article I wrote is “Do athletes have trouble with academic learning?” – Jada

The best article written by me was ‘The Mystery of Memories’ because I put a lot of research into it. – Nashrah

The best article I wrote was “What makes someone a good partner?” and I really enjoyed writing it because it was my first article. – Erick

The best article I wrote was “Movies coming this June” because it was easy and fun to write about, especially because movies are something I am passionate about. I also think this is the best article I wrote because it’s the end of the year and I feel I have gotten better at writing articles. – Arianna

The best article I wrote was “The switch up on Asians” – Leo

The best article I wrote was “Unscripted” because it is about developing health problems at a young age and the difference it makes in your life which is something I can really relate to and had lots to write about. – Kendall

The best article I think I wrote was called “The Pure Joy of Cookies.”  – Leah

What was the best article someone else wrote?

The best article that someone has written is about the way influencers on social media can have an effect on teens. – Cristy

I liked Javan’s articles because he puts a lot into it with much more inquiry. – Nashrah

What advice would you give to the next Staff Member who joins the Stampede? 

Advice I would give to the next staff member would be to be on time with your articles and not get behind because it can add up and become a lot of work. – Arianna

A piece of advice I would give to the next staff members is to have your topics ready weeks in advance because it will be really hard to come up with a topic within a short period or time.  – Bement

Some advice that I would give to the next Staff Member that decides to join the Stampede would be to always come prepared and with an open mind because people are looking to read interesting things and topics and not something they already know about. – Cristy

Advice I would give to others would be to focus on what you want to write about and try to get many quotes. – Javan

I also learned the importance of staying ahead of every article by planning ahead. Once I finish one, I should already be preparing for the next. – Erick

I would tell everyone, always remember that quality is better than quantity. – Nashrah

The advice I would give for the next staff members who will join the Stampede is, when picking your topic, make sure you to pick something you will enjoy writing about and also think about it in advance and use a google doc or a sheet of paper and write down any ideas you have about your next article, but be careful on what you pick as well, so you’re not always changing the topic and what not. Also if you want to go ask questions to people that you pick a really good topic that will help you think of very good questions and people could have very good answers. – Jada

One advice I would give to the next Staff Member who joins the Stampede is make sure to stay on task and use all time given in class. I plan on using the knowledge I gained in this class in the future to write more and stay more organized. – Leah

How do you plan using the knowledge you gained in this class in the future?

I plan to use my knowledge to help me figure out what to write about in the future. – Javan

I would use the analysis and observation skills in future, helps with efficiency. – Nashrah

I plan to use the knowledge I learned in this class for future assignments I’ll do so I get better grades on it with my grammar. – Kendall