In the Cardinal Times, everyone heavily relies on interviews. Journalists are not experts in everything, but when it comes to finding the right people to ask, that’s when opportunity strikes.

From freshman to senior year, Isabella Lo has worked with the Cardinal Times. Now a news and features editor, she holds a very important job on the team – a lot of ground was covered in our brief interview Tuesday afternoon.

A news and features editor gets every journalist to publish their best. Lo might be working on ideas for one person’s article, while refining another’s on the home stretch.

Working with another senior, she doesn’t do this alone – and that sharing of responsibilities goes with every part of the Cardinal Times. A big part being the strong community built with students, senior officials, and staff members. And that access is a big learning experience for everyone.

“It’s been rewarding, fun, and I think it’s helped me improve my writing skills. Learning how to be concise in my writing and for a deadline is tough sometimes. If you don’t have any ideas or you’re kind of stuck but you need to get it done – it has helped me in that way.”

The Cardinal Times community creates a positive feedback loop to make people push themselves, from official entrances into competitions, with awards to admiration through peers – a lot of people stick with it. 

“Hey I can do this, so you keep going… now I’m here.” Lo describes.

Lo had a supportive message for anyone interested in working with the Cardinal Times. And that offer doesn’t just extend to aspiring or talented writers.

“There’s so many parts of journalism in the Cardinal Times – we’ve branched out a lot just from writing articles, especially in this digital age with Covid.” 

She mentioned podcasting, photojournalism, and graphic design, just to name a few – so many talents can be used when publishing online.

Lo detailed what the team is planning on doing in the next couple months.

“There’s definitely going to be a lot of Covid-19 related things, we’ll just try to […] stay on top of it, posting more on Instagram and our social media, just trying to keep readers engaged. We’ll be covering a lot of issues about racial justice.”

With a fog of uncertainty to many, Covid-19 has made it hard to make plans or see what’s in store for the future. Lo finally remarked on her hopes for the coming weeks and months.

“I really hope we can get through this[…] and we can just get back to life as normal. I wish we could be in the classroom, at school. I hope this year will go well. I look forward to learning a lot this year, and hopefully having a good graduation.”