With the current school year coming to a close, the current Talisman editors are preparing to graduate, and new staff members are preparing to take over. For the 2023-24 school year, Grace Metz will serve as the Editor-in-Chief, and Carter Sims will serve as the Managing Editor.

1. What made you decide to apply for an editing position?

Grace Metz: “I think that with what I’ve done so far this year and what experience I have, I think that I’m pretty capable of doing this job, and that I want to do this job and I want to help people. I just love writing and I love the Talisman, and there’s so much more that I can do now that I’m [Editor-In-Chief]. I’m very excited for what we’re going to do next year.”

Carter Sims: “This will be my third year on staff, and I enjoy being a staff writer, but I definitely felt like I wanted to take a leadership position and share some of my experience with other people that will be joining staff next year.”

2. What is your job for next year?

Grace Metz: “Editor-in-Chief usually manages content. So I’m going to be particularly monitoring what content we produce and making sure that it’s relevant to the student body and that people will care about what we write and what we put out. My job is mainly to be kind of like a beacon for people to follow, set that example, set that precedent of giving this all you’ve got to get the most out of it.”

Carter Sims: “I’ll be managing editor, so that’s basically just helping anyone with any bumps in the road they encounter while they’re trying to get stories in. And be able to manage relationships on staff and just help people progress as best as I can.”

3. What are your plans as an editor for next year?

Grace Metz: “I want to focus on the content we produce and also the internal function of the Talisman, because I think that we’ve had some issues with that. This year some things could have been done a little bit better, and I think that this next year is going to really be about analyzing those things that we could have done better.”

Carter Sims: “I definitely want to cultivate more of a family aspect on staff and kind of keep it more of a fun environment here because I feel like that’s something that makes it easier to get work done as well. And definitely just bring the staff closer so that everyone can enjoy their time on staff next year.”

4. What are your goals for the publication?

Grace Metz: “For us to do better than this year. I think that’s everyone’s goal for next year.”

Carter Sims: “I feel like we could achieve All Ohio status from the OSMA awards for next year, and also have progressed our other multimedia projects and broadcast projects that we’ve been working on.”

5. What should readers of the Talisman expect to see next year?

Grace Metz: “Expect to see a lot more exciting stuff. We have a new broadcast program happening, we’re gonna have a lot more visual content and people working on visual content as well as on the video and podcasting. So a lot more variety of things. Hopefully a lot more current things to look out for.”

Carter Sims: “Definitely a wide variety of topics. I feel like we have a lot of different people joining staff, and I think it’ll be interesting to see some of the angles that we can get on stories. But also, I think it’ll be cool to see some of the growth of people that are joining staff for the first time next year and they’ll be able to kind of see their growth in their stories throughout the year as well.”

6. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Grace Metz: “The Hayes Talisman is working hard. I’m very proud of everyone this year, and I’m very proud of everyone who’s going to be joining us next year. I hope that everything goes well.”