The student news source of Iowa City West High

West Side Story

The student news source of Iowa City West High

West Side Story

The student news source of Iowa City West High

West Side Story

2023-2024 Staff

Zoe Smith 24
Editor-in-Chief

Zoe Smith

(she/her) Zoe Smith is a senior and entering her third and final year on staff. She is so excited to be this year's Web Editor-in-Chief. Although you can usually find her in the newsroom; you may also find her on the soccer field either playing or coaching,...

Zaira Ahmed
Print Editor-in-Chief

Zaira Ahmad

(she/her) Zaira Ahmad is a Senior at West High. This is her third year on staff, and she is the Print Editor-In-Chief. Outside of the newsroom, you can probably find Zaira at show choir rehearsal or volunteering with Rotary. She also loves spending time...

Eleanor Weitz 24
Managing Editor

Eleanor Weitz

(she/her) Eleanor is a senior and this is her third year on staff. This year, she's the managing editor for the online newspaper. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with friends and going thrift shopping.

Lilly Graham 24
Print Managing Editor

Lilly Graham

(she/her) Lilly Graham is a senior at West, and this is her third year on staff. Lilly is the Managing Editor for the print edition. Outside of school, Lilly enjoys playing tennis and spending time with her friends and pets.

Vera Tanas 25
Copy Editor

Vera Tanas

(she/her) Vera Tanas is a junior, and this is her second year on staff. She is the copy editor and art editor for the West Side Story website. Outside of journalism, Vera enjoys playing soccer, listening to music, working on art projects and spending...

Jessie Li
Print Assistant Copy Editor

Jessie Li

(she/her) Jessie Li is a junior at West High. This is her second year on staff, and she is the Assistant Copy Editor of the West Side Story news magazine. Outside of the newsroom, you can probably find her working at Hy-Vee, playing violin, chilling with...

Print Assistant Copy Editor

Jane Lam

(she/her) Jane Lam is a senior at West High. This is her third year on staff reporting for the print publication. As an assistant copy editor, she loves the little details. Outside of the newsroom, you can find her on the Speech and Debate team, on the...

Kamakshee Kuchhal 24
Print Assistant Copy Editor

Kamakshee Kuchhal

(she/her) Kamakshee Kuchhal is a senior at West High School and is super excited for her third (and last) year on West Side Story Print Staff. Besides being a writing and grammar nerd (lead copy editor), she is also a debater, volunteer, robotics-member...

Video Editor

Abby Guo

(she/her) Abby is a junior at West and this is her second year on staff. She is the Video Editor for the WSS. In her free time, she likes to hang out with her friends and listen to music on full volume.

Nicole Lee 24
Opinion Editor

Nicole Lee

(she/her) Nicole is a senior and in her third year on staff and second year as opinion editor. You can usually spot her walking down the hall wearing her yellow Doc Martens, listening to Belle and Sebastian. Her interests includes watching niche movies...

Tessa Gibson 24
Profiles Editor

Tessa Gibson

(she/her) Tessa is a senior this year and this is her 3rd year on staff. She is the profiles editor and one of the social media editors. She loves reality tv shows and ice cream. ...

Yaya Orszula 24
Sports Editor

Yaya Orszula

(she/her) Yaya is a senior and this is her second year on staff. She is the sports editor and enjoys running cross country and track, making bracelets and rock climbing.

Anna Song 25
Print Assistant Design Editor

Anna Song

(she/her) Anna Song is a junior at West High School and is excited for her second year on the West Side Story staff. This year she will be the assistant design editor on print staff. Outside the newsroom, she can be found either playing the violin, listening...

Mrudani Ramkumar
Print News Editor

Mrudani Ramkumar

(she/her) Mrudani Ramkumar is a junior at West High and this is her second year on staff. Mrudani's the News Editor for the print edition. Outside the newsroom, she's part of the tennis team and plays the violin. In her free time, she likes to read and...

Elena Garcia 25
Podcaster, Reporter

Elena Garcia Van Auken

(she/her) This is Elena's second year on staff. This year she is news editor and social media co-editor. When she's not at school she is either working, reading or listening to music.

McKenna Stephens
Designer, Photographer

McKenna Stephens

(she/her) McKenna is a senior and this will be her second year on staff. She is a designer and photographer for WSS. McKenna is also involved in show choir, dance and theater.

Helen Orszula
Artist, Designer

Helen Orszula

(she/they) Helen is a senior at West and this is her second year on staff. She is a designer and artist for WSS print. In her free time, she likes to read, mess around on Illustrator, and do crosswords.

Ginger Mccartney 24
Artist, Designer

Ginger McCartney

(she/her) Ginger McCartney is currently a senior at West,  this is her third year on staff. She is the art editor for the West Side Story paper. Outside of school, she spends her time graphic designing (for fun this time) and baking.

Reem Kirja 25
Print Profiles Editor

Reem Kirja

(She/her) Reem Kirja is the West Side Story print Profiles Editor and this is her second year on staff. She enjoys exploring different world issues and having intellectual discussions to learn about other perspectives. She also loves spending time with...

Defne Bayman 24
Communications Coordinator, Artist, Reporter and Photographer

Defne Bayman

(they/she) Defne Bayman is a senior this year, and has been on Print for two years and joined Web this year. They are the communications manager for all of WSS, along with an artist, designer, photographer, and reporter. When they're not in school, they're...

Features Editor

Ashlyn Brady

(she/her) Ashlyn is a junior and this is her second year on staff. She is the Feature Editor for the website this year. When she's not in the newsroom, you can find her curled up with a good book, hanging out with her friends and family, or listening...

Gianna Liu 25
Print Sports and Photo Editor

Gianna Liu

(she/her) Gianna is a Junior and is starting her second year on staff! She is the Photo and Sports Editor this year for print, which is exactly what she loves to do: photography and volleyball! When she isn't doing those or writing, you will catch her...

Athena Wu
Print Entertainment Editor

Athena Wu

(she/her) This is Athena's third year on the WSS print staff, and as a senior, their last year. She is entertainment editor, and enjoys all things satire, flair and unnecessary knick-knacks. This includes Radish's, horses, seraphs, inverted colors and...

Marie Stier
Print Features Editor

Marie Stier

(she/her) Marie Stier is a Junior at West High and she is excited for her second year on staff. She is the Feature Editor for WSS. In her free time, you can find her hammocking, doing puzzles on her porch and drinking kombucha (a recent discovery!)

Sam Rosenthal 24
Podcaster and Reporter

Samuel Rosenthal

(he/him) Sam Rosenthal is a Senior at West High and this is his second year on staff. This is his first year as a reporter. Samuel loves bowling, playing games with friends and writing far too many movie reviews in his spare time.

Tyler Shane 26
FOJ Intern

Tyler Shane

Tyler is a sophomore at West. He is an intern and this is his first year on staff. If not at practice, he's probably at home sleeping.

Celia Sadewasser 26
FOJ Intern

Celia Sadewasser

Celia is a sophomore at West. She is so excited to be a FOJ Intern this year.

Henry Timmer-Hackert
Print Assistant Opinion Editor

Henry Timmer-Hackert

(He/him) Henry is a sophomore at West High and ready for his first year on staff. He's the assistant opinion editor for the paper. Outside of West Side Story Henry runs with the cross country and track teams all year round.

Shanza Sami
Reporter

Shanza Sami

(She/her) Shanza Sami is a sophomore at West High. This is currently her first year on staff as a reporter. Outside of the journalism room, you can find Shanza biking, perusing through a new book or adding songs to her Spotify playlist.

Neema Ash 25
FOJ Intern

Neema Ash

Neema is super excited to be an intern this year on staff. She is a junior this year.

Airi Thompson 24
Assistant News Editor

Airi Thompson

This is Airi's first year on staff, they are a senior. They are super excited to be this year's Assistant News Editor.

Carter Birch Houchins-Witt
Reporter

Carter Birch Houchins-Witt

(He/him) Carter is a sophomore at West High and this is his first year on staff. He is a reporter. In his free time, he likes to get into arguments about extremely unimportant things such as whether the plural of octopus is octopi or octopuses.

Maddy Cook 26
Reporter

Maddy Cook

(She/her) Maddy is a sophomore and this is her first year on staff as a reporter. She dances at the National Dance Academy and is on the West High Dance Team. In her free time, she likes to read, listen to music and hang out with friends and family.

Grace Bartlett 25
Reporter

Grace Bartlett

(She/her) Grace Bartlett is a Junior at West High. This is her first year on staff, and she is a reporter. Outside of the newsroom, she enjoys cheerleading, reading, and hanging out with friends!

Ethan Tisdale 26
FOJ Intern

Ethan Tisdale

(He/him) Ethan is a sophomore and it's his first year on staff. He is an intern. Ethan was born on Leap Day.

Maya Mueller 26
FOJ Intern

Maya Mueller

(She/her) Maya Mueller is a sophomore at West High. This is her first year doing journalism and she is an intern. Outside of school, she enjoys reading, going on walks, napping and spending time with family and friends.

Anna Gibson 26
FOJ Intern

Anna Gibson

(She/her) Anna Gibson is currently a sophomore and this is her first year as a FOJ intern. Anna loves to play volleyball and hang out with her friends

Evelyn Kraber 26
Assistant Copy Editor

Evelyn Kraber

(She/they) Evelyn is a sophomore, and this is her first year on staff. She is the assistant copy editor for the website. In her free time, you could find her reading, baking, playing cello, painting or spending time with her family.

Anna Greenlee 23
Graphics Editor

Anna Greenlee

Anna is a sophomore in her first year on staff. She's the graphics editor for the WSS website, as well as part of the school's band, theatre and sophomore volleyball team. But on her off time, she likes to watch movies (which make her cry really easily),...

Haneen Eltyeb
Videographer

Haneen Eltyeb

(She/her) Haneen is a junior and this is her first year on WSS staff, working as a videographer. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies (then overanalyzing them), learning about the latest cyber attacks, fixing jewelry and spending time with friends...

Yeju Seol 26
Artist and Reporter

Yeju Seol

She is a sophomore and this is her first year on staff. She likes penguins.

Muhammed Cikmaz 24
Tech Editor

Muhammed Cikmaz

Muhammed is so excited to be this year's Tech Editor. This is his second year on staff and he is a senior at West. In his free time, he enjoys making documentaries and coding.

Minna Abdulla 26
Assistant Sports Editor

Minna Abdalla

(she/her) Minna is a sophomore at West High and this is her first year on staff. Her job title on staff is assistant sports editor. In her free time she likes to go bike rides, play soccer and hang out with her friends.

Erinn Varga 24
Print Design and Opinion Editor

Erinn Varga

(she/her) Erinn is a senior at West and this is her second year on staff. She is the design editor and opinion editor for the print publication. If she's not currently running, you can find her drawing, listening to music or consuming media.

Jules Keranen
Reporter

Jules Keranen

(they/them) Jules is a senior and this is their second year on the West Side Story. They are the entertainment editor for the online publication. After school they spend most of the time with their cat, Baby, watching movies.

Joe Corlette
Podcast Editor

Joe Corlette

(He/They) Joe is a Senior and has been on West Side Story Online for two years now. He is the Podcast Editor this year. For fun, they enjoy studying mythology, learning about history and delving into philosophical and ethical issues.

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Meet the Staff