Maggie
My sister Lisa and I were sitting in a Gloria Jeans coffee shop one sweltering afternoon in Tianjin, when she asked me what I wanted most from OSSM. I gave the generic answers she expected, like developing the habits that would help me later in college, taking advantage of higher-ed courses offered at the school, and being able to build relationships with new students and professors. As if unsatisfied with my answer, she then asked me a question that I continue to use to evaluate my personal awareness.
"How do you think you’ll change?”
An alum of OSSM herself, Lisa gradually matured from the big sister figure I was familiar with to an individual with opinions and dreams that I looked up to and loved. I hadn’t imagined myself in the same shoes and was unconcerned with the transitions I would inevitably go through. I suddenly felt bewildered by the thought. “What if there was a way to catalogue these transitions?” “What if I as a student was able to share with my peers in our goals, concerns, and give advice?” “What if...we started a magazine for this?” These were the questions I asked myself and the answers of which were the beginnings of The Echo. With high hopes, I was determined to see this idea through.
In truth, The Echo lost ground once the school year started. I was encouraged to concentrate on my studies and acclimate to the new environment. First semester proved to be a challenge conquered, then second semester promptly reared its head. Nearly eight months had passed at OSSM and time was running out. Thankfully, I found a few close confidants who were interested in the idea immediately: Akansha Chandrasekar, an aspiring neurologist and computer science enthusiast with a passion for the written word, and Grant Westfahl, a style-savvy humanities buff with a background in news writing and photography.
Akansha
When Maggie first approached me with the idea of a student publication, I was ecstatic. Here was an opportunity to exercise my skills in both writing and web design while simultaneously uniting a community I cared for deeply. We immediately got to work scouting people that would be interested in contributing and found Grant who made an amazing addition to our team. After many attempts at coordinating meetings and brainstorming ideas, we finally created a set of goals. We were extremely excited about putting our ideas into action but alas, summer had already dawned on us. Being students from different parts of the state (a testament to OSSM’s ability to unite thinkers from diverse backgrounds), we found it impossible to meet up. So through a slew of text messages, Google Docs, and self-imposed deadlines, The Echo evolved into a website and words that we hoped would make an impact on our community. Our vision was to create a source of guidance for students and parents alike. With the student life column, I hope to bring to light the experiences and opportunities that mark the life of the OSSM student body. Upon its launch, The Echo has already proven to be an enjoyable challenge; it has encouraged me to explore my interests in web design and writing and take them beyond the classroom and into the real world.
Grant
I remember quite well the day that I was first introduced to the idea of The Echo. Maggie and Akansha had approached me with the opportunity to help establish a student run publication, and that was the beginning for me. After careful deliberations on how we would run The Echo, our mission truly began. The coming summer promised a fertile opportunity to care for the new seed that Maggie planted. We knew that our new “garden” would require consistent tending to. Foreseeing this, we decisively split The Echo into four columns: advice, student life, humanities, and sciences. The Humanities, or the studies of our culture, life, and creations as humans, is the subject of my column. As such, I have several duties to undertake. At the heart of the column is the presentation of student artwork, Oklahoman art, and developments in the fine arts. Whether it be simple sketches, traditional canvas paintings, digital or film photography, and even haute couture or prêt-à-porter fashion, the excellence of OSSM students goes beyond the natural sciences. Exciting fields that consistently progress with the ages, History, Anthropology, and other culture-based studies impart the failures and successes of our predecessors. As such, I hope to share the plethora of human history and the bits of it that fascinate our faculty and students. Just as lush as the grandeur of human art and history are the inventive writings that make up what we call literature. Through famous critiques of people and ideas, retellings of historical occurrences, or the imagining of authors, literature tells us how our ancestors felt and expressed their feelings in eloquent forms. Encompassing a vast array of content, the humanities column presents a formidable challenge to those seeking to adequately cover it. By taking this challenge on I hope to broaden our readers’ knowledge of the human experience.
Things ended up falling into place as we sought guidance from each other and the student body. As we were now seasoned juniors, we began to see the stories around us that exist in plain sight: from day-to-day interactions with professors, to conversations with students about their penchant for photography or physics, to interviews with local artists and professionals about their work. We chose The Echo as our name because of its meaning for both the social and situational aspects of life as a student and teenager. “Echo” as a social term embodies the individual voices of students, and as a situational term, it serves as a repository for events and ideas that make up the people we were and will become. The magazine's mission is to catalogue these voices in the form of a website so students can have a space for discussion, dissent, and share creatively among each other.
We hope that The Echo empowers the student body to express their talents, concerns, and interests the same way that my sister empowered me to creatively address what I would anticipate at OSSM. After all, OSSM is a place that, after two years, will indelibly change the way you see the world. How great it is to be a part of this change while it lasts.