Sydney Ward: News & Features editor

After moving across the world from Auckland, New Zealand to Lincoln High School during her second semester of freshman year, Sydney Ward knew she wanted to find a place at her new school. 

As her senior year comes to a close, Ward is happy to have served as News & Features editor and appreciative of the community she created through The Cardinal Times.

“It was really hard to make friends and I knew that I wanted to join something that would allow me to have a community at Lincoln and make friends,” she said. “I like writing and I’ve always been interested in news, so I thought Mass Communications was the perfect thing to join.” 

It turns out that what she thought would be a good fit landed her in an environment she was a part of for the following two years. After getting her start in Mass Communications, Ward wanted to continue in journalism and find her voice on The Cardinal Times. 

“I did the intro class in my sophomore year, and joined the paper in my junior year, then applied for News & Features at the end of that year, and I’ve been News & Features for a year,” she said.  

Working on The Cardinal Times has left Ward with lots of fond memories to look back on. One of her favorites was from her junior year on the paper when she got to write an article about Lincoln’s rugby team. 

 “I found out they were playing a game… and we just turned up there and we awkwardly went up to the coaches and were like, ‘Can we interview you guys for an article?’ It was just so funny, we took pictures there and they had no idea who we were,” Ward said.

Looking back, she has spent time doing a variety of projects and writing all kinds of articles for the newspaper, but one of her favorites was “Some Students Must Choose: Dance or Tradition,” an article about how the Winter Formal Dance fell on the same day as Lunar New Year, leaving many students forced to choose between a dance or their traditional celebration..  

“I’m really proud of [that] article,” she said. ”It has won a few awards, and I really think it made an impact. I thought it was a really important topic that I hadn’t seen anyone talk about, so I really enjoyed that.”

Not only did she make fun memories editing issues after school and reporting on important topics in our community, she also learned what journalism means to her while working with the Cardinal Times staff.

“It’s about getting what’s important out to people, and allowing people to access information that’s important to them as well as knowing what’s going on around the world…I see myself reading a lot more news everyday… I enjoy reading news and I like different types. I think it’s a really important part of life,” Ward said. 

Next year, Ward is excited to attend the University of Washington, where she is planning on studying business administration with a focus on marketing. 

Although one of the biggest lessons she will take to college from her time on the paper was time management, her piece of advice to her freshman year self was to get involved.

“Get involved in as many things as possible… I could have done more things to be more comfortable and have more fun at Lincoln,” she said. “Just be open and try more things.”