Paw Print Magazine Set to Release Winter Ed., New Era of Editors

 by Yonatan Pedram, SSLI ‘27

This past Tuesday, Paw Print Magazine held a meeting for club members to learn about available editorial positions. The meeting was open for sophomores and juniors. Since the seniors just wrapped up editing the February edition, several editorial spots were open for candidates to consider.

The cover for the February edition of Paw Print, which will honor Omer Neutra's HY"D Memory. (Yael Pedram)

Many positions were open to apply for, including titles such as copy editor and layout editor. (Copy editors assure that the magazine is free of spelling and grammatical errors, and the layout staff designs the look of the magazine under the guidance of the editor-in-chief.) Additionally, content editor positions for sections such as World News, School News, Op-Ed, and Arts and Culture are also open for applicants.

A total of six interested members attended the meeting. Sara Rosenthal, one of the sophomore attendees, shared her thoughts on the meeting: "It was really a preliminary meeting. Yael Pedram [former Editor-in-Chief] and Micah Bidner [current Editor-in-Chief] explained the possible roles for us as editors, and we were told to think about what we want to do and get back to Micah about it.”

Each candidate will have to take a test and attend an interview to become an editor. The test will take place during a lunch period shortly after we return from February break. Each candidate will also be interviewed by Bidner sometime after break. Sam Levenson, another sophomore candidate, expanded on the contents of the test: "The test is about grammar and language composition. We were told that the test was very difficult, which would easily highlight any advanced knowledge we have. Even though it’s hard, the level of passing is low enough so that capable students are able to pass.”

The new Paw Print Magazine Editor-in-Chief Micah Bidner shared, “Everyone was very excited to participate and seemed very invested. I feel very excited! I have some new ideas to shake up the magazine, and I am excited to compile a team of people to get it done.”

The candidates are excited to become editors. Rosenthal expressed, "I’m excited to be an editor because it looks good for colleges, and I think it’ll be fun because I honestly like editing, especially peer-reviewing in AP Seminar.” She continued, “Overall, it was definitely a good meeting, and I’m excited to hopefully become an editor!”

With the entry of the new editors, the former senior editors completed their last magazine edition of their high school careers. Their efforts recently earned them first place for the American Scholastic Press Association Contest. Sasha Chernoff, a senior and the former Arts and Culture editor, expressed her feelings about her editorial career: "I really liked being an editor of Paw Print, and I’m really glad that I could be part of this amazing team. I learned so many skills that I will take with me forever. I am going to miss being part of the club while I start this new chapter of my life, but I wish the future editors the best, and I know they will continue to succeed. I can’t wait to read the future editions."

Senior and former Editor-in-Chief of Paw Print Magazine, Yael Pedram, expressed her feelings on the magazine winning the award and passing on the club presidency to Micah Bidner: “I'm really proud of the editing staff for pulling together a really great edition that won the award. We put a lot of hard work into Paw Print, and it's really nice to see it pay off and get recognition from other people. I'm very proud of the editors because there really are multiple pieces to this machine that ultimately creates this magazine. If one part doesn't do their job, then the whole thing falls apart. I'm really grateful for this hard-working team who wanted to publish a good edition for the school.”

She concluded, “Thank you for a great few editions. I'm really happy that the student body loved everything I got to help publish, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for Paw Print.”

Yonatan Pedram is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since October 2023. Yonatan is currently a sophomore at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: ypedram27@schechterli.org.