With the 2024-2025 school year wrapping up, Talisman has introduced their new editorial board. Unlike past years, the newest board will be led by two juniors and the rest seniors, with one returning editor. The newest editors include Oliva Hayes (Director of Multimedia), Carson Stroupe (Director of Visuals), Kate Shipp (Online Content Manager), Vivian Kumpf (Managing Editor) and Zella Bunch (Editor-in-Chief).

Oliva Hayes – Director of Multimedia

How has this year set you up for taking the same position next year?
“Now I kind of know what works and what definitely does not work and so next year I have a much better idea of how I want to run things and what jobs I want to set for people. Now I know we need to kind of stick to that for the whole year and not get sidetracked.”
What are some changes that you will make for next year?
“I want to start meeting with people individually more often, maybe once a week or something, just to check in on them personally and also be able to have harder conversations if they’re not doing a lot of their work or stuff isn’t going great.”
How are you going to involve everyone in your branch?
“Everyone can kind of get sidetracked back here. But if I know personally that there’s something that they could be doing, then I’ll check in with them and just be like, ‘Hey, how’s your group doing?’ ‘Do you know what you need to be doing?’”
What are your priorities for next year?
“My priorities are that everyone can kind of learn the basics of editing and then exporting and uploading videos, creating projects and working in [our software] FLOW, just so that I don’t have to constantly keep reminding people throughout the year.”
How will you work with the other editors?
“I’m used to having younger people kind of like, be in charge of me or in a leadership role in school… So, I’m not [going to] have a problem with [the juniors]. I know that they’re really good at what they do, so I’m excited to get to work with them.”

Carson Stroupe – Director of Visuals

What made you pursue this position?
“I’ve always liked photography, and I think that being with Talisman last year, I really enjoyed it, and I’d like to facilitate that… and provide fun opportunities for other people.”
What are some changes that you will make for next year?
“I think more opportunities for photographers–I’m really excited about that. I think I’ve got a lot of good ideas. I know other people have a lot of good ideas, lots of new content and stuff and that we did a really good job this year getting most of the sporting events and I’d like to try and reach, hopefully, all of them next year.”
How are you going to involve everyone in your branch?
“I’m working on some newer ideas. Me and McClain have talked about working on a Q and A sort of thing that photographers can do. It’ll be a little bit more [interactive]… having to ask questions.”
What are your priorities for next year?
“Making sure everybody’s involved and nobody feels like they’re missing out on assignments. Making sure that they are distributed evenly and they’re not just to one person.”
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
“Really excited about the group. I think it’ll be good. I think having a lot more photographers next year will be fun for people.”

Kate Shipp – Online Content Manager

What made you pursue this position?
“I think Abby [Stahl] really got me into it last year, and [sports photography] was something I wanted to do before I switched my mind. I wanted to do online sports content for sports teams… and I switched my mind to criminology [for college], but it’s still something that I really enjoy doing and being involved in.”
What are some changes that you will make for next year?
“We’ve already started trying to rearrange and add more stuff to the website. There’s this school in California that does current events, and they have an interactive map, so we’re going to do something like that and try to do current events in Ohio and stuff like that, which is really exciting.”
How are you going to involve everyone in your branch?
“Next year I’m not going to be in second period because I have to do other classes, but I feel like starting off when we do [the] summer workshop. Just being clear up front [about] what the expectations are and how to communicate things will help a lot.”
What are your priorities for next year?
“Mrs. McClain and I have been talking about traffic flow and how we can draw more viewers to the website, based off our Instagram… We’re doing Instagram reels next year with mini mics. So I feel like that’s [going to] be really fun, just going around and drawing more attention to Talisman and getting more people involved than just interviews and small broadcast stuff.”
How will you help balance content?
“I feel like we don’t do a lot of theater and band stuff, which I know our band is, like, really good. I feel like we should do more coverage on stuff like that, so maybe more interviews and interactive stuff with them, compared to just our whole school sports, other people need to be involved too.”

Vivian Kumpf – Managing Editor

Why did you pursue this position?
“I feel like I’ve really grown to love the Talisman, and now that I’m part of it, I want to make it better. So I feel like as managing editor I can use my leadership to make it even better than it is now, which is pretty good.”
What are some changes that you will make for next year?
“I definitely want people to strive to be more on top of things and encourage that through the group, especially the writers, having more original story ideas and a variety of stories to really cover the entire school and getting those done on time so the artists and the photographers and the social media team [aren’t] getting swamped when we’re all turning [projects] in or asking for things all at once, so then it will feel like one big group.”
How are you going to involve everyone in your branch?
“I think we’ll try to have better communication between the two class periods and especially with Lillian [Olszewski] being in second period now, there will be more of a connection.”
What are your priorities for next year?
“I think that we need to spend more time in the beginning [to get] a good idea for what the story is going to look like, because then that’s going to help everyone know what to do and how to get it done on time.”
How will you use past leadership roles to help in this role?
“I’ve learned a lot about collaboration; I’ve done a lot of group work. Which group work is always hard no matter if it’s your best friends or people you hate, so Talisman is kind of like a big group project, just because we’re all doing it for the same thing, and we’re all working towards making it better.”

Zella Bunch – Editor-In-Chief

Why did you pursue this position?
“I really like seeing people put out good work, and I really like being able to put out good work, and I think that this is a really good opportunity to be able to do that.”
What are some changes that you will make for next year?
“I want to work a lot more on clarity and making sure that everyone knows what’s going on and what their expectations are… I think it would be really helpful for getting our news out and getting into high school when you can.”
How are you going to involve everyone in your branch?
“We’re going to try using the FLOW Message System potentially next year so that [we] can reach some more people. I think I’m also hoping we actually get to have a few more outside-of-school interactions, hangouts and stuff. We had quite a few that never made it out of the group chat, but I think that could be good for next year.”
What are your priorities for next year?
“I think my priority is going to be just making it a really good environment for everyone and making sure that everyone feels comfortable and like they’re doing their best work… I’ve seen that it can be stressful for people, and I want to be able to work around that and make sure that people are enjoying the class.”
Anything else you’d like to share?
“I’m really looking forward to it. I’m really excited. It’s good for my ego, I’ll say that. I like feeling like a good writer. I think that is one of my strengths and I’m excited to be able to help other people do better with their own writing.”