Senior Leela Moreno led The Cardinal Times with care and genuinity; those she’s worked with only have kind words to say.

“Leela is a great writer and a natural leader,” said Cate Bikales, former editor-in-chief during the 2021-2022 school year. “She’s one of the sweetest people I have the privilege of knowing.”

Along with her friendship with Bikales, Moreno has built many long-lasting connections.

“We just have such funny conversations in The Cardinal Times,” said Moreno. “We all really love spending time with each other, which I think is one of the best parts about being on staff here.”

Throughout her time on staff, Moreno has learned that journalism is about giving back to the community.

“Journalism is all about influencing change and being able to work with people, learn new things and help [others],” said Moreno.

For Moreno, journalism has been an opportunity to connect with the people around her, as well as empower underrepresented voices. In her sophomore year at Lincoln, Moreno began the podcast ‘We Are Not Alone’ with fellow reporter Skylar DeBose, about being a student of color at a majority white school.

“You get to learn about other people’s experiences and then you get to share them,” said Moreno. “Being able to highlight voices that are underrepresented in the media has been very important to me and that’s something that I’ve stuck to all throughout my years on the paper.”

By spending four years with the Mass Communications course, Moreno has plenty of fond memories.

“The red chair is a core memory, fighting over who gets it,” said Moreno.

In the fall, Moreno will be attending Brown University in Rhode Island. She is looking forward to being on the East Coast with family she doesn’t see very often.

“I’m feeling super blessed to have a home away from home in Rhode Island and New York,” said Moreno.

At Brown University, she’ll be studying international and public affairs with the goal of working in diplomacy or public policy.

“I’m really passionate about immigration, the law and social justice,” said Moreno. “That is what I want to do with my life, working on equity.”

The Cardinal Times adviser Mary Rechner has known Moreno for four years and has enjoyed working with her.

“Leela is a great combination of being super smart and also having a really big heart. I think that combination is pretty amazing,” said Rechner. “She cares a lot and she leads with the needs of others.”

No matter how much time passes, Moreno will always look back at her time with The Cardinal Times warmly.

“Even if you move on and seniors […] graduate, you never lose those meaningful connections,” said Moreno. “I know I’ll always be able to visit the staff and connect with my really great friends from the Cardinal Times.”

Senior Abby Yium has been a part of The Cardinal Times staff since her sophomore year. After taking Mass Communications her freshman year, she joined the newspaper as a reporter. Yium became a news and feature editor her junior year and took on the role of managing print editor for her last year at Lincoln. She has enjoyed gaining new perspectives and uplifting the voices of Lincoln community members.

“I think my favorite part of being a reporter was interviewing people and seeing people’s different perspectives and opinions, and then being able to write up on that …and give them a platform,” Yium said.

Many of the topics Yium has covered as a reporter allow her to highlight voices often underrepresented. 

“I wrote an article last year about the new teen parent center that’s being built. I got to interview a social worker who works with teen parents, and I got the opportunity to interview a teen that used the center at a different school,” Yium said. “Getting to hear her experience, and being able to uplift her voice was really special to me.”

Yium will be attending the University of California San Diego (UCSD) this coming year. After taking IB HL Biology her junior and senior year, Yium is excited to be a part of the school’s biology program. Although she is not planning to work on the school’s newspaper, she hopes to write for the student Biology journal, “The Saltman Quarterly.”

Yium is also looking forward to warmer weather and a more accessible ocean.

“I will always love Portland, but being in the sun and being like ten minutes away from the beach [is exciting]. I really want to learn how to surf,” Yium said.

Senior Eva Novy-Hildesley has known Yium since the beginning of high school. They both participated in cross country during the 2022 fall season and have Theory of Knowledge together this year. Novy-Hildesley emphasized Yium’s genuine and helpful personality.

“What makes Abby such a special person, different from a lot of other people, is the way she’s willing to show up for the people she cares about. If there’s something important in my life I have no question that she’s going to be there to support me,” Novy-Hildesley said. “I’m really excited to see what she does in the next four years in college, and I know she’s got a lot of pretty cool aspirations.”

Although she’s excited for what’s to come, Yium says she will miss many parts of Lincoln—the staff, her classes and the community.

“I will definitely miss Cardinal Times, Ms. Rechner and the entire staff here and the community we’ve built,” Yium said. “I think I will also miss the kind of spirit we have here, especially our class colors competition.”

Senior Kate Haddon has been in the Mass Communications program for four years, starting with Mass Communications her freshman year, then joining the paper her sophomore year. She has held the role of sports editor, news and features editor and managing print editor. 

Originally, Haddon wanted to be on the yearbook staff.

“I forecasted for yearbook, but I was put into Mass Communications because that’s what everyone has to take. I was outraged,” she recalls, “I spent the beginning of my freshman year just trying to switch out. But then I realized I didn’t want to do yearbook at all.”

After learning more about The Cardinal Times and the community, she decided that what she really wanted to do was write for the paper.

“It was one of the better decisions that [I made],” said Haddon.

Haddon has worked on a wide variety of projects, from her tribal history series to the short lived School Desk Concerts.

“There are really talented musicians in our community, and getting to talk to them and listen to the music they make is really cool,” said Haddon. “[I also loved] my series on tribal history… [it] was one of the series that I felt really impacted the community and gave people a platform.”

After high school, she plans to attend Pitzer College in California and stay involved in journalism.

“I am going pre med. I want to be an orthopedic surgeon with a focus on sports medicine,” said Haddon. “I definitely want to be involved with the news on campus next year, whether that’s as a journalist or as a consumer, I know [journalism] will stick with me.”

She looks back on her time on The Cardinal Times positively.

“Some of my best friends are in this class,” she said. “I just think it’s really special to share the passion [for writing] with other students.”

Before she graduates, she would like to leave some advice.

“One of my favorite things to say to my friends when they’re having a hard time is you can be the ripest peach in the world, but some people just don’t like peaches,” said Haddon. “It’s important to remember that you can be amazing in so many ways, and some people just won’t jive with it. So go where you want, do things that will make you happy, because at the end of the day, this is your life.”

Finally, Haddon has some things she’d like to confess.

“I used to leave sticky notes on the inside cover of library books with notes to the next reader… things about the book or ‘have a nice day,’” she said.

She does not recommend looking for these notes, but maybe in the future a lucky reader may find them. 

Senior Eirini Schoinas started Mass Communications in her freshman year. She joined The Cardinal Times as a sports editor during her sophomore year then continued to be a leader, taking on the role of digital editor in her junior and senior years. Schoinas continued as a leader by becoming managing digital editor.

“I have worked a lot on the website and I feel like the whole thing has gone way smoother. We redid the whole order of events, added new sections on the website and made small, but important tweaks,” said Schoinas.

Over the past three years, Schoinas has used journalism to learn about new topics and different parts of the community.

“I like being able to talk to all sorts of people about things I never would have done before. [Like] When I talked to Mr. Brida and Ms. Ross about the solar panels, the green roof. I just never would have done that,” said Schoinas. “It’s been really nice to explore different parts of the Lincoln community that I never would have thought to otherwise.”

In the fall, she will be off in the sun at the University of California Santa Barbara to follow her passion of computer science in combination with her other interests.

“I’m going to be studying computing, Which is technically computer science but it’s more accelerated,” said Schoinas. “I want to do human-computer interaction stuff. I love computer science, obviously, but I like art and have other interests. That’s kind of how I want to merge them together and be able to not let go of my interests.”

Despite the large change of moving to a new state, Schoinas is excited to try new activities and explore.

“Being able to go somewhere and take advantage of new opportunities and experiences will be great. I want to learn how to surf. There’s a lot of scary things that come with it, but it’s totally going to be worth it,” said Schoinas.

Throughout her four years at Lincoln, Schoinas managed to find many new interests and hopes that others will find theirs as well.

“You should always make time for fun. I feel like with COVID it became super clear because there wasn’t a lot to do. When you don’t have outlets, it’s kind of miserable,” said Schoinas.

Schoinas offers some advice.

“Work very hard and spend time in your classes, but do the work so you actually have time to do things you enjoy. If there is something you find interesting, do it,” said Schoinas.

Kenzie Ward has been involved with the Mass Communications program at Lincoln since her freshman year. This year, Kenzie assumed the role of design and visuals editor, where she found her passion for design, and made the decision to further her passion after graduation. 

Ward redesigned the newspaper this year by changing the cover, creating graphics and making new standards for designers to follow. 

“I wanted to give designers creativity because in past years we didn’t really think about creativity, we were given a stylesheet and we’re given rules to follow, and no one ever explored outside of that,” said Ward.

Editor-in-Chief Leela Moreno expressed her gratitude for the redesign.

“The paper was completely transformed,” she said. “It has really become something that people want to pick up and look at and that is amazing.”

Ward enjoyed the freedom that came with working on the newspaper. She also enjoyed getting to connect with a variety of people at Lincoln. 

“[I enjoyed] being able to write on whatever you want and having an outlet, you don’t usually get a chance to write about things that you’re passionate about,” said Ward.

The article on eSports that she wrote for The Cardinal Times fourth issue was Ward’s favorite. Through this article, she found that there are a variety of careers with a focus on creativity. 

“Everyone thinks that playing games has no positives, but these happy good things that people actually like doing can turn into serious career fields. This doesn’t just go for eSports, it goes for so many other opportunities, like design,” said Ward. “Art can be something serious, even though a lot of parents and adults advise against it because of its creativity.”

Ward plans on furthering her design abilities. 

“I’m going into design, which I originally wasn’t going to go to college, but design made me want to go. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and being on the newspaper gave me the chance to explore design and figure out that it’s what I actually like to do, and that it could be a possible career path,” said Ward.

Her favorite memory from being on The Cardinal Times comes from her sophomore year. 

“I liked being on the Cardinal Times with my sister,” said Ward. “We always wanted to be in the same class. In my sophomore year and her senior year, we were both on the paper together, which was unfortunately disrupted by COVID.”

Even though COVID-19 interrupted the school year, Ward still found a way to enjoy it. 

“When we were in online classes, I would just go and sit in her room and we would watch it together on the same computer,” said Ward.

Kenzie has some final advice for new designers. 

“New designers, please don’t make the newspaper ugly. I trust you, but keep my wishes please. Ugliness is a disease,” said Ward.

Senior Skylar DeBose has been part of Mass Communications at Lincoln since she was a freshman, starting with the Mass Communications class before joining The Cardinal Times her sophomore year. She has been a reporter for three years and an arts & culture editor for the past two, as well as a member of the editorial board during her junior year.

DeBose joined The Cardinal Times because of her interest in writing.

“I wanted to become a better writer but I didn’t want to take a generic writing class, I wanted to do it in a more interesting way,” said DeBose.

Over the course of her Cardinal Times career, DeBose has focused on highlighting the voice of marginalized communities at Lincoln. Her junior year, she co-created a podcast called “We Are Not Alone” that centered on race.

“As a Black woman, highlighting my own experience and the experiences of other people of color at a predominantly white school is crucial because these stories are often not highlighted,” said DeBose. 

Aside from The Cardinal Times, DeBose has participated in many communities at Lincoln over the years, including soccer, track, Sisters of Color, and Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER). As a member of three years and president of two years, Sisters of Color has stood out to her in particular.

“It’s really been such an impactful community, especially going to a predominantly white school, having a space that’s centered for women and femmes of color is super impactful,” said DeBose. 

Next year, she will attend the University of Oregon.

“I think I’m going to mostly focus on psychology but I’m still also interested in journalism, ethnic studies and law,” said DeBose. 

In the future, DeBose’s main aspirations are to become a lawyer and travel the world.

“[I want to] experience new things, make new connections and learn about new cultures,” said DeBose. 

DeBose has loved hanging out with her fellow Cardinal Times staff members during class and will miss the community of the paper.

“I feel like we all are determined to share different stories about Lincoln and the amount of creativity that we have with people from different backgrounds and who are involved in different things really comes together to make something so special and powerful,” said DeBose.

Throughout high school, the biggest lesson DeBose has learned is how to stay true to herself.

“By finding my own self-confidence I’ve really learned that it’s important to focus on what you want to do no matter what people are going to think of you,” said DeBose. 

Ronan Duke-Martin is a graduating senior who will attend Northeastern University in the fall. Duke-Martin has been on The Cardinal Times for a year and was previously on Beyond The Flock.

While Duke-Martin originally forecasted for a second year on the school magazine, Beyond The Flock, he was instead put into The Cardinal Times where he has found more creative freedom due to the need for graphic designers on the newspaper.

“There’s a lot of room for creativity. Before I came, there was a big role for that open, and it’s been fun and fulfilling to be able to do creative work,” said Duke-Martin.

Duke-Martin has enjoyed being able to apply his art skills to the newspaper by designing coloring pages and other graphics for articles.

“[For] the coloring page, I had to draw in a style I’m not really used to, in a simple cartoon style,” said Duke-Martin. “It was fun, especially hearing the feedback from other people. I think people enjoyed it, so it was invigorating and made me feel good.”

Duke-Martin reflects on his favorite memory with the newspaper and the small moments he saw when the staff was working to get the paper to print.

“Near the end of each publication there’s [always] an emergency, three or four articles cut, and it’s always funny to see people freak out,” said Duke-Martin.

Before he leaves The Cardinal Times, he wants to give some advice to those coming onto the staff, as well as those already on the staff.

“Get your stuff in on time and everyone will like you more and you’ll have a better time,” said Duke-Martin.

Managing print editor Kate Haddon reflects on the role that Duke-Martin has had on the paper.

“Ronan has been a great addition to the staff, he is incredibly talented and he brings so much design expertise to our paper. He has elevated many of our issues by designing larger graphics as well as coloring pages,” said Haddon.

After graduation, Duke-Martin plans to double major in business administration and design with a concentration in marketing psychology. He also plans to go to London and Oakland through the Global Scholars program during his first year.

Senior Tabitha Lee is the social media manager on The Cardinal Times. She joined the Mass Communications class her freshman year, and kept journalism as one of her electives throughout the rest of high school. Lee has been managing The Cardinal Times’ Instagram and writing articles to be published in the digital or physical version of the newspaper. Her stories range from a satirical paper on “The Yerba Mate Crisis” to articles about Chat GPT and a new act bringing menstrual products to all bathrooms at Lincoln. 

Lee joined the newspaper to learn how to work and communicate in a publication. 

“I thought social media would be cool because it’s a different way of interacting with people, especially since social media is now pretty mainstream,” said Lee.

She reflected on her time in a journalism class during the pandemic, saying, “It was really hard to connect with people and learn how to be a really good reporter when I wasn’t even in a class, I was just sitting at home.”

During the pandemic, Lee’s family adopted a dog on PetFinder. She was given the opportunity to write an article about COVID-19’s effect on shelters nationwide and feature her new furry pal, Ash. She says this was her favorite project she worked on. 

In addition to being a pet parent and a reporter, Lee is also an avid track runner who got into running in middle school because she likes being active, but most likely isn’t going to continue it during college. When she isn’t running, you can find her thrifting, playing with her dog, or hanging out with friends. If you see Lee around school, she wears a big smile and has a neat sense of style.

When responding to a question regarding what she’ll miss about Lincoln, Lee said, “The location, [be]cause it’s in a really good part of Portland and it’s super easy to walk to stuff.” 

Lee recalled one of her favorite memories from working in the publication. “In the old building we had this rolling chair that the Editor In-Chief got to sit in,” she said. “We moved to the new building and I think the chair might’ve gotten lost. Sometimes, I wonder where that chair went.”

This fall, Lee plans to major in psychology at San Diego State University. She’s taken psychology for two years at Lincoln and wants to continue learning more about the interesting subject. 

“I’m looking forward to meeting new people and being in the sun,” said Lee. “I’m excited to be in a different city and expand my worldview.”

Graduating senior Lia Althouse has been a part of the Mass Communications program since joining Intro to Mass Communications in her sophomore year. Joining the paper as a junior, she wrote riveting pieces on the Cardinal Times for the remainder of  high school. 

Having committed to University of California San Diego, Althouse is planning to explore a career related to the arts and is looking forward to a more independent lifestyle. 

“Having a little more freedom is also going to be very nice. [Even though] t’s gonna be hard, I think it’s gonna be nice,” said Althouse.

During her time in the paper, Althouse stood out to her fellow staff with her passion to cover social issues along with arts and culture, said managing print editor Kate Haddon.

“Lia was always willing to cover a variety of difficult and interesting topics and she did so with a passion and interest that was really important for this paper,” said Haddon. 

Althouse thought the most important things she learned on The Cardinal Times were to build honest communication and to have a willingness to cover stories that you have an interest in.

“Just do what you think is interesting! Even if it is scary you’ll gain some really valuable experiences from it,” said Althouse.

Henry Reuland, a positive, charismatic and loyal Lincoln senior will soon be leaving the flock. Reuland’s time as a student, Cardinal Times reporter and soccer and golf team captain has been nothing short of legendary. There are many things he enjoyed about high school.

“Man, the highlight of my Lincoln experience? That’s a lot, there’s a lot of highlights,” said Reuland, reflecting on his time at Lincoln. “The best thing, I’d say, are the friends I’ve made. I feel like I know a lot of people really well now, a lot of really good people.”

Reuland hopes to have left the school better than how he found it.

“I hope I was able to be a role model as a captain for the sports teams I played on, soccer and golf. I hope I was able to leave those programs in a better space,” said Reuland.

Next year, Reuland will be attending Boston College.

“I’m not fully decided [on my major] yet. It’s probably gonna be something engineering or sciency. STEM kid for sure,” said Reuland.

Reuland has some parting advice for underclassmen that he hopes they take to heart.

“Just be yourself. Find people, there’s always people who you’re gonna find who are like you and who you can connect to,” said Reuland.

This year May Cole has written a plethora of articles branching across a variety of subjects, from “Do lush face masks taste as good as they smell?” to an article covering the issue of under-representation of women in Lincoln’s STEM classes. She has contributed so much to the staff through her funny or hard-hitting articles. 

Cole decided to graduate a year early and will be pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Mount Holyoke College. She will be on the Pre-Health trackso she can reach her eventual goal of becoming a pediatric nurse. The choice to graduate early was an easy one. 

“I just felt like I wouldn’t be taking any classes that I could be passionate about in my senior year,” Cole said.

Cole wanted to be on the student newspaper at Lincoln to share her voice, and likewise, she is also considering joining a publication at Mount Holyoke. 

“I have always enjoyed interacting with people and like looking into and writing about hard hitting issues—The Cardinal Times has also given me an outlet to be more involved in the community here,” said Cole.

She says being on the staff of The Cardinal Times has given her valuable life lessons.

“I have learned to not be afraid to reach out to people and not be afraid to speak my opinion,” said Cole. “Sometimes it can be scary to put more controversial views into print, but doing so this year has been really liberating.”

Senior Owen Adams has been on The Cardinal Times for all four years at Lincoln, creating great memories in each. 

Many of Adams’ articles, such as his “Species Spotlights” where he ranks animals of the Pacific Northwest, have been widely read in the Lincoln community, some having upwards of 20 comments. He prefers to write about wildlife, but being able to do stories on whatever interested him helped make the class one of his favorites.

“In my freshman year, […] I wrote about The Truman Show and had a ton of fun writing it,” said Adams. 

In addition to The Cardinal Times, Adams has participated in rock climbing, the Constitution team and the Speech & Debate team. In debate, Adams placed 22nd in the national Speech & Debate competition and said his former Speech & Debate coach, Jeff Koogler, was one of the best mentors he has ever had.

“He’s my favorite [mentor], I still talk to him sometimes; he’s [always] been really helpful,” said Adams.

Adams is attending the University of Oregon and will be majoring in Marine Biology. This interest stemmed from his several articles of fish, crabs and sharks.

“I started learning a ton about [animals] through The Cardinal Times and a lot of them ended up being marine,” said Adams. “Marine Biology was just kind of natural.”

Brooke’Helen Delane is graduating early. She looks back fondly on her time as part of the staff of The Cardinal Times. She joined Mass Communications her sophomore year, her first year at Lincoln, after starting high school in Waianae, Hawaii.

This year, as a junior, Delane joined the newspaper, wrote several profiles about staff members and also reported on topics such as mask wearing and the affordability of college. Her interest and passion in writing will follow her to college where she will study English literature and writing at Western Washington University in the fall. 

“For one of my future careers, I’m thinking of becoming a writer,” Delane said. 

Throughout her time at Lincoln, Delane has found aspects of journalism that she is passionate about. 

“I’ve really enjoyed doing the newsworthy articles because it attracts more people to [them],” she said. 

Delane has loved the connections she has made in the past two years she’s been a part of Mass Communications class.

 “It’s a really great community,” said Delane. “Everyone is very nice.”

She looks forward to her future in writing and recommends becoming a part of The Cardinal Times staff to work with an uplifting and friendly community. 

“I believe joining can be a great opportunity for students to explore some new skills,” said Delane

Introducing Thomas Kenyon! Known by his peers for his admirable reporting and impressive podcasting skills, Kenyon’s first year serving as a reporter for The Cardinal Times was nothing but a success. 

After joining the Mass Communications class as a junior, then rising to The Cardinal Times as a senior, Kenyon has worked on a variety of pieces. 

“I would say my favorite piece is the podcast, Sports Mania. I spent a lot of time making that with Henry Reuland. I was already a pretty big fan of podcasts so I enjoyed making my own,” said Kenyon.

Kenyon expresses immense gratitude for the community and experiences he gained while working on The Cardinal Times. 

“It’s definitely a really good community that I’m really glad to have been a part of,” said Kenyon. “It really reinforced my writing skills and my media awareness. I read a lot more newspapers and online news when I was on The Cardinal Times compared to when I wasn’t.”

In addition to his involvement with The Cardinal Times, Kenyon’s presence will also be missed outside of the newsroom. 

“I’m on the Multnomah Athletic Club (MAC) climbing team, which I’ve been doing for a while with some good friends. I’m on the lacrosse team here at Lincoln too, which is a really good group of people. And then I was a flock leader this year, which is also a lot of fun,” said Kenyon. 

Following his departure from Lincoln, Kenyon is excited to begin the new chapter of his life in sunny California. 

“I’m planning on playing club lacrosse at University of California San Diego (UCSD),” said Kenyon. “I’m also planning on studying chemical engineering to continue my interest in chemistry.”

Senior Christian Pedersen joined The Cardinal Times staff this year as a reporter, and has had a fun and constructive experience on the school newspaper. 

He began his path in journalism when he took the Mass Communications class as a junior. He was drawn to journalism because he is interested in investigating issues that concern his community. He also wants to understand the entire story of the issues he is reporting on.

Pederson became interested in photography when he took a photography class and started to learn how to load film and shoot. Being on The Cardinal Times has allowed Pedersen to express his interest in photography as well as writing. 

“I think the photo that goes with an article can sometimes carry [the same] weight [as] the writing when presented,” he said. “The photo draws people to the article and is often the first thing looked at by readers, which is why I think the quality and accuracy of them is important.”

He is considering a minor that would allow him to incorporate photography at the University of Oregon. He is also looking forward to using journalism after high school. 

“I am excited to see the opportunities in college where I can incorporate journalism [and] communications,” Pedersen said.