By CONNIE NOLEN / Community Columnist

“Climb up on top of the computer cart Mrs. Nolen,” junior Joe Pineda says. “You’ll have to go high to get us all in the picture.”

“We need those computers!” Veteran staffers say, laughing with Pineda. “Mrs. Nolen is serious about computers, you’ll see,” they warn him.

“I’m high enough,” I report from my perch atop a desk seat. “I’m just going to have to lean back and stretch to get everyone in the frame. Smile!”

Forty creative kids have arranged their first 2017-18 Literary Magazine Staff photo. Arranging the shoot required bringing together the magazine class and the out-of-class staff. Connected by group text and lots of social media, these students communicate and represent Lit Mag with style.

Senior staffers hold the Lit Mag sign—a photo board with large letters spelling out Lit Mag displayed instead of photos. Juniors position the remaining staff. New staffers are awestruck. Perhaps they expected Lit Mag Staff to be quiet and introverted; instead, they’re realizing that Lit Mag Staff consists of charismatic creatives.

“I joined Lit Mag with the accurate expectation that we’d design on paper and digitally. Now I see that Lit Mag is also about sharing ideas and making friends,” said new staffer Megan Kamholtz, a talented filmmaker, who has already impressed her classmates.

Creating simple movies teaches important lessons about publication links so producing individual staff intro movies begins the year. The determination of those making first movies this year is impressive and the relative ease that returning staff members exhibit in the process is impressive. These veterans now face deadlines with quiet calm replacing the panic of previous years.

As the veterans finish assignments, they assist classmates building trust and reliance. This year, we’ll share every creative print piece, web design and commercial. We’ll celebrate the color of the year in December. We’ll produce Write Night second semester. We’ll live what the veterans call “that Lit Mag life.”

And I will wait with excited anticipation to see what these forty brilliant brains collaboratively create in their 2018 PHS Literary Magazine.