OUR NEW EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Karen and Lilly readily await a
new season of Scholium.
Photo courtesy of Tavis Sanders ’26
There’s no single way to stumble into U204. For Lilly, dreaming of journalism began as a sixth grader watching Gilmore Girls; for Karen, it was her intriguing freshman English teacher, who opened the year with astrology charts and sent her a mysterious recruitment email. Whether premeditated by the stars or by Rory Gilmore’s journalism, writing and editing the Scholium has become an integral part of not only our Academy experiences but also our approach to interpreting the changing world. As your 2026-2027 Editors-in-Chief, we are honored with the unique opportunity to shape that experience for you—the audience, the writer, the editor—and offer a constant anchor of reliable and diverse journalism for our school and beyond.
Lilly’s experience includes editing for Features and News, where she learned the importance of visual engagement and awareness of international events. Karen has edited Editorials and Features, which made her passionate about the importance of diverse opinions and community engagement. Our vision for strengthening the Scholium emphasizes changes that would improve the quality of published works, promote community involvement, intrigue readers visually, and expand political discourse on campus.
One of our greatest priorities this year is to expand our digital engagements beyond monthly social media posts. While the 2025-2026 digital team made commendable strides to reinstate the website, there is considerable potential to be unlocked this coming year. We’re already on it—the new Digital Team is currently rebooting the entire website, and we’re rebranding completely on Instagram. (Follow us @academyscholium!) A majority of Scholium readers engage with the paper because of the convenience and immediacy of a physical format, delivered straight to their hands once a month. We must develop a unique draw for the digital Scholium in order to leverage technology as a tool, not a crutch.
This year, we’re introducing Breaking News, a consistently updated online column where students can find time-sensitive community information and world events, and we will begin incorporating polls onto our stories to gauge community interests. Furthermore, to increase online involvement with Academy Scholium, we hope to implement an online newsletter that contains links to every article through the Daily Bulletin or the Form Deans’ emails. Our goal is to create a convenient way for students to access EA’s student journalism both online and in-person.
In a similar vein, the 2026-2027 Scholium will explore public accessibility to strengthen the community voice, whether through interview opportunities or photography. Currently, students are only able to provide input if directly approached by a writer, creating redundancy in demographic and opinion. Sending out a volunteer interviewee sign-up form, in which students can indicate if they have insight into a relevant topic after the article assignments, will not only relieve pressure from writers but also bolster the Scholium’s role as the voice of the entire student body. Furthermore, this accessibility can be extended to photography; while our photographers are capable, providing the opportunity to the rest of the community when necessary will increase interest and engagement with the Scholium.
Moreover, the executive staff hopes to visually improve the Scholium by reforming our photography section and by becoming more versatile with InDesign. Various types of textboxes, fonts, and colors, should be leveraged to create a structurally intriguing and versatile paper. This year, we would love to explore the possibility of a “photo hunt”—a monthly competition that opens up photography in the paper to a general audience–because of the overwhelming talent on campus.
The content of the paper will also be given a makeover to include more diverse viewpoints. The Scholium is perhaps the only place where one can find more articles about the importance of political discourse than discourse itself. Students and teachers alike are restrained by a fear of social and professional repercussions, as modern politics have increasingly reduced policy disagreements to ad hominem attacks. While this climate is not the fault of the Scholium, it has become a critical obstacle in the creation of every political article—one that we must address, even at the expense of our comfort. It is increasingly clear that the Academy does not lack opinion nor education, but a sustainable platform that normalizes dialogue as a fact of life rather than an act of subversion. If we are to destigmatize serious themes in discourse, we must blur the distinction between a regurgitation of the facts and community engagement.
The Scholium embodies “Work hard, play hard” because it is the representation of Episcopal’s community as a whole, which emphasizes not only academic prowess but also spirit, fun, and multifaceted talent. In 2026-2027, we are excited to twist this concept into all sorts of forms and shapes: whether it be a controversial take, a crossword puzzle, or a community collage, we’re ready to put the work to make the Scholium as versatile as you are.
Lilly’s Fun Facts: I am gluten and dairy-free, have a twin brother, and one of my favorite words is superfluous. My favorite movies, in no particular order, are La La Land,Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dirty Dancing, and Pitch Perfect. My favorite book series is Percy Jackson. None of this pertains to the newspaper, but I don’t really care because they are fundamental aspects of my existence. I also know every word to the Hamilton soundtrack. And Andrew Garfield was/is the best Spider-Man.
Karen’s Fun Facts: I love gluten, dairy, cholesterol, calories, and everything bad for me. I have one kidney (not related to the first fact, don’t worry), and my childhood crush was Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube (this is where everything started going wrong). I love going to concerts for bad music and playing Jane Remover/2hollis/bassvictim/underscores on aux out of Danity’s ugly electric BMW. If you couldn’t tell, I have no license (chud). I actually don’t know how to read, so Lilly rereads Percy Jackson for both of us.