Tribune Staff

Jack Collins

Jack Collins, 16, is a junior at Petaluma High School and this is his first year in journalism. Collins joined journalism because he has always been a strong writer and he enjoys collaborative classroom environments. He loves to watch movies and hopes to pursue a career in film, specifically screenwriting and cinematography. He is also a fan of many different types of music and is almost always found with headphones in. Collins plays drums for Eject Button and is an active part of the local music scene.

David Cook

David Cook, 17 years old, is a senior in his third year of journalism at Petaluma High School. After joining the Trojan Tribune team two years ago, he immediately fell in love with the class and is thrilled to continue contributing to the Tribune for one final year. While he loves his main hobbies of baseball and basketball, Cook also loves being in the classroom and learning new things. He joined the class because he has a passion for writing and knew that writing for the school newspaper would be a productive and enjoyable way to express himself. Cook is now an experienced story editor and looks forward to strengthening his story editing and writing skills while taking on the challenges and responsibilities of Head Page Editor. Since it is his final year in the class, Cook hopes to solidify his Trojan Tribune legacy.

Maya Cramer

Maya Cramer is a 15-year-old sophomore and is a new addition to the Trojan Tribune. Cramer joined the Tribune to have a better understanding of how the newspaper process works, as she wants to learn how to write newspaper articles for the Junior State of America’s (JSA) Publicity Department. She likes to learn about the different perspectives around her and is involved with JSA on chapter and state levels. After school, she dances ballet and hopes to dance professionally for her career, as well as becoming a physical therapist for dancers. Hamsters are also a big part of her life. She has had eight total, including the two Syrian hamsters she currently owns. One of Cramer’s favorite subjects is history, which became her favorite after a summer class at the Junior College.

Carson Delarosa

Carson Delarosa is a 16-year-old junior and a returning member of the Trojan Tribune staff for his third year. This year he is taking the responsibility of assistant editor in chief so he can be ready to help lead the class in his senior year. Delarosa is very excited to contribute to the paper by continuing his development in photography and writing. In his spare time, Delarosa loves to create cartoon art and has an immense love for pop culture; he loves many pop culture staples such as Marvel/DC comics, Transformers and Star Wars. Delarosa is otherwise found with friends or taking photos of the world. He also has a strong interest in music; he loves many different genres and can likely enjoy any song that is put to his ears. In the future, he has his heart set on becoming a professional photographer or journalist. Delarosa is looking forward to returning to school, helping contribute to the paper again and meeting new people!

Chloe Donahey

Freshman Chloe Donahey is entering her first year of journalism. Donahey joined journalism in hopes of learning all she can to one day work for the BBC World News, particularly the “Global News Podcast.” Donahey would like to major in journalism on a volleyball scholarship at UC Davis or an Ivy League school. This year, she is looking forward to going to football games, having fun at dances and playing sports. Besides journalism, she is a middle blocker on the frosh volleyball team, plays piano, reads, hangs out with her sisters, draws pop culture and watches movies. Donahey looks forward to her freshman year at Petaluma High.

Haylee Donelson

Haylee Donelson is a 14-year-old freshman who is new to journalism. Donelson chose to take journalism because it really intrigued her, as she has always loved to write, and wants to put herself out there more and meet new people. This year, Donelson is looking forward to making as many new friends as possible and greatly improving her writing skills. In her free time, you can often find her baking or cooking various dishes, and she loves playing soccer and spending time with her close friends. Donelson likes to write short stories and really enjoys writing fake letters from different characters’ perspectives.

Stella Dowd

Stella Dowd is a 16-year-old senior at Petaluma High School and is in her first year of journalism. She joined journalism to improve as a writer before she begins college, as well as to become more involved in the Petaluma High community. Dowd enjoys being involved at Petaluma High and has played many different sports for the school, including golf, swim, badminton and cheerleading. Outside of school, Dowd enjoys being around her friends, but also values her time alone to destress. She enjoys being in nature and interacting with different types of wildlife on her walks around her neighborhood.

Stella Frances

Stella Frances, 17, is in her senior year at Petaluma High School and has loved words from the moment she could understand them. Frances is a writer, co-Head Copy Editor and the Arts and Opinions Editor for the Trojan Tribune; she joined journalism during her sophomore year with the intent of sharing her thoughts with the rest of PHS. Frances has a particular taste for opinion pieces; she is strong-willed and ready to argue any point. When not focusing on the paper, she enjoys seeing live music with her friends and can otherwise be found with her cats, likely either watching “Adventure Time” or starting a new book. She is additionally the president and co-founder of the Art of Noise Club. Frances dreams of attending college in New York City and majoring in something involving English, film or marketing.

Ryan Giacomini

Ryan Giacomini is a 17-year-old senior in his first year as a part of the Trojan Tribune staff. He joined journalism to better his writing skills as he plans to major in journalism in college. Giacomini also wants to encourage more students to join the class and to take an interest in journalistic writing. This year, Giacomini is looking forward to making the most out of his senior year and enjoying every moment of it with his friends and family. Outside of journalism, Giacomini plays basketball for Petaluma High School, is the Trojan True club president, has a job scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and works as a sports journalism and broadcast media intern at YSN365.

John Grant

John Grant, a 16-year-old junior, is dawning on his first year in journalism. Grant has joined journalism in the hope of developing his journalistic writing skills, and he is interested in writing on a variety of topics throughout the year. Grant enjoys hobbies such as football and rugby; he plays football for the Petaluma Trojans and is on a club rugby team. Grant volunteers at the Sunrise Senior Center, but during the pandemic has been unable to do so. He loves spending time with his family and friends. Grant looks forward to working on the Trojan Tribune with his classmates.

Aiden Griffin

Aiden Griffin, a 16-year-old junior, is new to journalism and eager to learn. He joined journalism because he sees a career in journalism and loves to write. Griffin looks forward to connecting with his fellow journalists along with old friends. He takes multiple AP classes, hoping to challenge himself in school. Griffin likes to play video games and sports with his friends on the weekends and loves to listen to a wide variety of music. Griffin has interests in writing about sports in the future but will write about anything that he has a passion for.

Kayla Kesterson

Kayla Kesterson, 15, is a sophomore at Petaluma High School. She has several academic goals for this school year, including learning how to write detailed stories about current events, capturing action shots and to generally excel in her other classes. Kesterson has many hobbies outside of journalism. She enjoys staying active; she has been cheerleading for six years now and was the only freshman to make Petaluma High School’s varsity cheerleading team last year. Kesterson has made it her goal going into freshman year to be on the varsity cheerleading team and trained for almost twelve hours every week to do so. In the future, Kesterson hopes to get a full-ride scholarship to UC Berkeley and make their college cheer team.

Remy Lakritz

Remy Lakritz is a 15-year-old sophomore at Petaluma High School. This is Lakritz’s second year in journalism and her first as an editor. Lakritz loved the class last year, so she is very excited to return this year and hopes to develop her friendships with her classmates and further strengthen her writing skills. She looks forward to getting good grades and being in person for school after a year of distance learning. When she is not in school, Lakritz likes to hang out with her friends and do theatre. She has performed in shows ranging from musicals to plays, such as “Macbeth,” “Lord of the Flies” and “Mamma Mia.” When with her friends, she likes to play Dungeons and Dragons. Lakritz is excited to write for the Tribune and hopes to earn a higher position in the coming years.

Emily Lara

Emily Lara is a 15-year-old junior returning for her third year of journalism. Lara joined journalism so she could better her writing skills and gain some insight into what it takes to be a journalist. She is looking forward to being able to take veterinary science this year and helping out some new students in journalism. In her free time, Lara enjoys skateboarding around her neighborhood, watching horror movies, baking treats such as banana bread and brownies, going on hikes with family and hanging out downtown with friends. She is looking forward to putting effort into this school year and bringing a good attitude to journalism.

Emma Lofgren

Emma Lofgren is 17 years old and in her senior year at Petaluma High. This is her first year with the Trojan Tribune. She is excited to be a part of this class because she loves taking pictures: Capturing a moment in time has always been important and intriguing to her. Lofgren likes to learn other people’s opinions, and as a result, enjoys curating her own opinion based on all sides of the story. Outside of school she can be found going on a nightly walk, baking something, hanging out with a friend or listening to music. Lofgren likes photography, fine arts and architecture, and hopes to find a career in any of these areas.

Nora Lounibos

Nora Lounibos is a 15-year-old sophomore at Petaluma High School. This is Lounibos’s first year in journalism and she is very excited for the upcoming school year. She chose to join the Trojan Tribune staff because of her interest in political and cultural current events and she wants to share her opinions with the community. She also joined due to her ongoing love of writing. In this class, Lounibos will be able to utilize that skill to spread news that affects the community and the world. As for other extracurricular activities, she is on the cross country team and is a part of Junior State of America (JSA), an organization that debates and shares opinions on current political issues, so she will be able to use her argumentative skills in both JSA and in the newspaper. Outside of school, Lounibos loves to spend time with friends, bake, read and play piano. She is looking forward to experiencing her first full year of in-person high school and gaining experiences in real life rather than through a screen.

Alina Mitchell

Alina Mitchell, 16, is a junior at Carpe Diem High School. This is her third year writing for the Trojan Tribune; being a journalist has taught her many skills and techniques that greatly improved her writing. When she is not writing, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends, baking and painting.

Sisi Nieuwboer-Bas

Sisi Nieuwboer-Bas is a third year journalist and is this year’s Head Copy Editor and Finance Manager. She is a 17-year-old senior who has always had an interest in writing. Nieuwboer-Bas is a soccer player for North Coast Football Club, a local soccer group, as well as the Petaluma High varsity team. Nieuwboer-Bas joined journalism because of her interest in writing; however, her main reason for joining was to learn more about what a career in journalism would be like. Nieuwboer-Bas hopes that this class will help her future career choices. She is especially looking forward to learning how the class works together to create the Trojan Tribune. Nieuwboer-Bas is incredibly excited and enthusiastic about being able to participate in this class.

Miriam Norwitz

Miriam Norwitz is a 16-year-old junior at Petaluma High School. This is her third year in journalism and she is a second editor. In her free time, she mostly hangs out with friends, watches TV and listens to music. Norwitz joined journalism because she loves writing and editing; she enjoyed being in this class for the last two years and plans to continue through the rest of high school. She wishes to pursue journalism after high school for college and as a career. Her dream is to attend NYU and afterwards continue to live in New York City. Norwitz is looking forward to meeting new people and having her work shared with the school. She brings her good work ethic, passion for writing and her editing skills to the Tribune.

Sophia Paul

Sophia Paul is a 17-year-old senior at Petaluma High School who is starting her first year of journalism. Paul hopes to use her photography and writing skills in this class as a way to make new friends and inform others about current news. Her main goal is to become a correctional psychologist in order to directly help people experiencing a mental health crisis. Outside of journalism, she enjoys reading, listening to music, watching Netflix, spending time with friends and playing the ukulele. She has a variegated musical taste and her all-time favorite movie is “Heathers.”

Sam Ramassini

Sam Ramassini is a 16-year-old Petaluma High student. He is taking journalism because his brother took the class and it looked like fun. Ramassini is new to journalism and is excited to learn more about how to interview, write and edit in a journalistic style. Ramassini likes U.S. History and writing on informative topics. Outside of journalism, Ramassini plays for the school football team as the kicker. Ramassini likes to play video games and watch DC Comic shows, including “Titans,” “The Flash” and “Arrow.” He enjoys playing and watching soccer for fun and hopes to play for the school. Ramassini is eager to have fun in this class as he writes stories for the paper.

Yesenia Rojas

Yesenia Rojas is a 14-year-old sophomore who decided to join journalism to get better at expressing her opinions. She looks forward to meeting new people and getting better at communicating. Every Thursday after school, Rojas plays volleyball with her siblings. She played basketball on the school team for Tomales High School but will not be trying out for Petaluma High School’s team. Rojas tends to be very antisocial during school, but that will hopefully change with time as Petaluma High helps her get better at socializing and expressing herself.

Devin Ruy

Devin Ruy is a 16-year-old senior at Petaluma

High School in his first year working with the Trojan Tribune. Ruy has always loved writing and joined journalism in hopes to elevate his

writing and investigative skills. He hopes to have a positive impact on the quality of the Tribune, leaving a long-lasting impression and hopefully inspiring others to share his passion for writing. This year in journalism, Ruy hopes to interview many people, getting a wide range of opinions and views to share with the community. Ruy has played a total of four sports throughout high school, but is focusing solely on lacrosse in his senior year. He has high hopes of leading his team to an undefeated season, "ballin" on both sides of the field. He tries to devote as much time to his family as he can because he knows how much of a role model he is to his younger brother. Ruy is excited to close out his high school career on a high note.

Cameryn Schisler

Cameryn Schisler, a 15-year-old sophomore, is a copy editor in her second year on the Trojan Tribune. Schisler joined journalism last year because she enjoyed writing, but as the year went on she discovered other passions in politics and editing other people's work. Outside of journalism, Schisler enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading and baking. This year, she is looking forward to the in-person newsroom as well as learning how to navigate journalistic platforms such as InDesign.

Destry Schultz

Destry Schultz is a 17-year-old senior who is currently in his second year at Petaluma High School’s Trojan Tribune. He has long considered pursuing journalism as a possible career choice and decided to take this class to improve his writing and analytical skills. Schultz hopes to come out of the class a competent journalist who is able to quickly interpret current events and news. Among his many interests are surfing, reading, writing, playing video games and working with his hands. As a member of the newspaper, Schultz looks forward to building a reputation as a reliable, hardworking member of the team. He is ready and willing to dive into a wide array of topics in order to construct well-written stories and a correspondingly wide range of opinions.

Stella Schwappach

Stella Schwappach is a 17-year-old senior at Petaluma High School. This will be their fourth year in the class, returning as the co-editor in chief of the Trojan Tribune; they love writing and have developed a love for journalism and the paper itself. They look forward to returning to creating a physical newspaper, made in person with the rest of the staff, after the digital issues created over the past two years. Outside of journalism, they are a varsity volleyball athlete and run a small business on Etsy where they sell custom notebooks and crocheted items such as amigurumi dragons and turtles.

Ava Scott

Ava Scott is a 17-year-old senior in her second year of journalism. After learning the ropes of editing in her first year, Scott was promoted to a second editor this year. She is a competitive dancer at Studio C Dance Academy and is a part of Link Crew at Petaluma High. Scott joined journalism because she enjoys writing and showing her creative side. She will contribute to the paper by meeting all of the deadlines and being a team player. Throughout the class, she hopes to learn more about how a newspaper is put together. She is looking forward to informing students about important news and events through the paper, especially because the student body is finally back together. In class, Scott will be someone who is ready to work with other people and learn from those who have taken the class before her.

Charlie Scott

Charlie Scott is a 14-year-old freshman at Petaluma High School in his first year of journalism. He loves writing and joined the class to improve upon his writing and journalistic abilities. Scott is looking forward to writing about a wide variety of topics and hopes to expand his knowledge on current events. Outside of journalism, some of his hobbies include playing soccer, hanging out with friends and family and being around animals, especially his dog Tito and his bearded dragon Louis. Scott loves to volunteer at the Petaluma Wildlife Museum and he cannot wait to take the class in the upcoming years. He plans to work hard in journalism over the next few years to hopefully work his way up the editor ranks as he collaborates with his fellow writers at the Trojan Tribune.

Maya Walter

Maya Walter has returned to journalism for her sophomore year of high school; she is very excited to be a part of the Trojan Tribune staff again this year as a second editor. Walter is also very eager to start writing and learning more about the world. Some of her other hobbies include painting, photography, cooking, going to the beach, listening to music and hanging out with friends. She can typically be found playing her two favorite sports, volleyball and lacrosse. Walter continued taking journalism this year to pursue and improve upon her love of writing and other journalistic skills. This year, Walter hopes to add another perspective to the paper and hopes to touch on events occurring both in and out of the community. Overall, she looks forward to working with her fellow classmates and adding to the positive atmosphere.

Austin Zaman

Austin Zaman is a 17-year-old senior and returning journalist for the Trojan Tribune. He joined journalism to expand his analytical mind. Journalism has long appealed to him through the unique sense of freedom it offers, especially when it comes to going out into the field and working with his hands. In his free time, he finds enjoyment in reading, writing, listening to music and spending time with his friends. He is passionate about local events and writes for the Trojan Tribune to share his vision of Petaluma to the Trojan community.