Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader,
I am honored to have been chosen to be the Pixel Journal’s new editor-in-chief, and I am extremely excited for the future of the Journal. I’d like to thank Fatima Rahim and Bella Samutin for patiently and persistently leading the Pixel Journal for the past two years and for trusting in me to carry out and expand upon the Journal’s vision. The Journal team will be cheering them on as they bring their enthusiasm and leadership to college and beyond!
Since its founding in 2016, the Journal’s mission has been to share our diverse and accomplished student body with the world. We have documented students’ journeys as they have conducted world-changing scientific research, represented their countries in sports, and travelled around the globe. I know how inspiring these stories were for me to read as a freshman, and I hope to continue to shine a light on our brilliant students in the upcoming issues of the Journal.
However, I am sensitive to the fact that only featuring students’ best work, especially at an online school where it is difficult to gauge all of the effort behind student achievements, has contributed to an atmosphere of stress and self-doubt. One anonymous graduate posted on a College Confidential thread, cautioning prospective students that at OHS, “you could be reminded every day that there are students out there–your age and at your school–that are literally curing cancer or winning international-level olympiads”, and claiming that “no one ever feels intellectually validated or secure”. Similarly, our former Student Body President wrote in a blog post about her years at OHS “[many students] don’t regain their confidence throughout the duration of their time at such a high pressure environment such as OHS and I think this is one of the greatest under-addressed tragedies of the school.” These reflections are important. These are sentiments that I have heard echoed amongst many of my friends and peers and that I have felt myself. There is not yet a place at OHS for the student body to publicly express their ideas and concerns, but I hope that the Pixel Journal will be able to fulfill this role.
Though we will continue to write about the wonderful individuals in our community, I also believe that OHS has a student culture that is worth defining and documenting. By examining the OHS-unique experiences that we share—from attending class on a car to the inevitable bombardment of MSB final project surveys in Bulletin every spring—and discussing school-wide questions and interests, I hope that the Journal will come to fully represent the students of OHS: our passions, our questions, our critiques, our ideas.
My goal is to ensure that the Pixel Journal becomes a lively, frequently-updated hub of activity that prompts student discussion about interesting topics relevant to the OHS community. For this to happen, the Journal will start publishing issues on a bi-weekly schedule. Currently, the Journal has published 100 articles across all of its categories. In the 2019-2020 school year, I have planned to publish 20 issues for a total of at least 100 new articles. Additionally, long-time readers will notice that the categories of the Pixel Journal have changed to reflect our shift in focus to the wider OHS community, and we have introduced a new Culture section. We will also be creating fun polls and quizzes related to OHS classes and student life. I hope you will find our new content informative, engaging, and as always, inspiring!
The Pixel Journal aims to pay homage to our incredible school and the education that propels us to move into adulthood as thoughtful, passionate, and confident individuals. Our articles will be fair and unbiased, and we will not hold back from critiquing the aspects of our school that need to be improved upon. But ultimately, we hope to celebrate the vibrant community that continues to blossom here.
I hope the Journal will become another cornerstone that makes our unconventional community even stronger.
To a transformative year,
Hannah Yang
Editor-in-Chief