Alisha S.
Alisha is a 17-year old native and current resident of West Columbia, SC. She does some, but not much, as a Senior and fourth year student of Airport High School. She’s been in clubs such as Beta Club and is currently in clubs such as HOSA and The Bigger Picture. She decided to try basketball her freshman year but decided not to play shortly after. She hasn’t taken any specialized classes that would have prepared her for writing for The Eyrie, but she has completed English courses I,II,III, and IV. She has no prior journalism or school media experience but has interest in learning about how to become an effective journalist. She doesn’t have an interest in any news shows in particular, but she occasionally reads news articles from sources she can only assume to be reliable. She enjoys both playing basketball and watching basketball games in her free time. She has an interest in health and enjoys learning about dieting and nutrition. She hopes to write about people's personal experiences here at Airport High School for The Eyrie. She plans of going to college to get her masters in either nutrition and food sciences or exercise science.
Allie S.
Allie is a senior at Airport High School from West Columbia, SC. She is a member of the varsity softball and volleyball teams. Allie is 18 years old and has one brother. She loves spending time with her family and being outdoors. Allie also likes playing with her dogs, going hunting, and helping people. Allie does not have her plans for after high school finalized but she hopes to major in Elementary Education.
Previously, Allie completed four English classes. She had a different teacher for each class, and adjusting to each teacher's style was sometimes difficult. However, Allie likes a change. Her favorite was English 1 because she learned a new event each week and got to write her opinion about it. Although English is not her strongest subject, she hopes to learn more about Journalism and the history of newspapers so that she can contribute her knowledge to The Eyrie.
Allie is very interested in current events, such as politics. She likes to read others' opinions and then give her own opinion about the topic. Another interest she has is learning about people and their backgrounds. She loves to explore new places and would like to share her thoughts about them with other students. Also she wants to write about cultures, athletics, and important topics at Airport High School.
Ashley S.
Ashley S. is 18 years old and currently a senior at Airport High School. Ashley has a younger brother and lives in West Columbia. She does not participate in any extracurricular activities, but she does enjoy spending times with friends. She also enjoys shopping. You will often times find her at the mall.
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In previous years, Ashley has taken Englishes I-IV, which is why she is currently taking Journalism. Although she has no experience with Journalism or the school newspaper, she is looking forward to learning more about The Eyrie. She hopes that this class will give her more knowledge about journalism and writing.
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In her free time, she enjoys traveling to different places with her family. Ashley has a very quiet personality but she does enjoy having a good time with friends and laughing with others. After high school, Ashley looks forward to graduating and going to college. She is unsure where she wants to go college, but she hopes to major in business. She even hopes to start her own business and travel abroad. While writing for The Eyrie, she would like to cover current events and activities that happen on campus so that students can get involved.
Austin L.
Austin Sadie Lucas is a fifteen year old, soon to be sixteen year old sophomore. She lives with her mother and eight different pets, including a Green Wing Macaw named Seymour. Most of her animals are rescues, though a few are not. Through the massive responsibility of looking after pets and keeping them out of trouble, Austin has learned quite a few lessons on responsibility and empathy.
English and history have always been her favorite classes, and she often wishes she could go back in time to just explore and experience the different time periods. If she had the chance she would love to experience both Ancient Greece and Rome, and maybe even the Victorian era. Austin wants to travel the world and learn about different cultures. She is currently in English III Honors and by joining the Eyrie she wishes to grow stronger in her writing, specifically her argumentative writing. Austin often indulges in watching the news and is not afraid to argue politics. Since the 2016 election, she’s had her eye on politics and hopes to one day minor in political science.
She hopes to write strong articles on politics and other controversial topics. Since the election of Trump, politics has changed for the worse, taking on a very harsh and abrasive roll. With the tension levels rising with North Korea and inside the White House, it is important to know what’s in store for our future. She would also like to explore her fellow students knowledge of politics and where they stand on political views, by either conducting an interview or a poll.
Briana B.-D.
Briana B-D is 17 years old and currently a senior attending Airport High School. She enjoys scrapbooking, drawing/coloring, and creating calligraphic works of art. She spends most of her time (when she's not in school) tutoring young children. She is honestly just ready to move out of South Carolina and start her life anew.
Briana B-D has no prior experience in the newspaper writing field. She wants to be a good source of information that can be trusted. She is looking forward to learning what it takes to be a proper journalist. She has the drive to become a journalist.
Briana plans to graduate from high school, get a good job, get married, and start a family of her own. She wants to have a happy life with many animals, and her own family. She plans to be a stay at home mom if she can.
Brianna B.
I have no experience with journalism or news papers. I am 18 but only for another month, so I know what it’s like to be too old for scool in Airport High School. I enjoy researching interesting things and often you can find me hanging out with teachers before and after school. Teachers talk when they know you keep your mouth shut so I know just about everything there is to know that is going on with the school from bus evacuations to simple drama among teachers and students. I have written quite a few attention grabbing works and stories that many students and teachers have enjoyed to read, always asking when’s the next bit coming out? I can’t offer much for the school news paper but I can offer a day and a life of an average Airport High School student, meaning I can tell people what it’s like to be poor and go to school, where and when they can get help with WiFi being nonexistent at home to do school work, and I can even tell students when clubs meet though I’m in none; I just know a lot about the school. I’m here early and late every day most days I’m here for 12 hours so I gather up a lot of important information so I could offer the paper information
Brooke F.
Brooke F is a senior at Airport High school who was born and raised in Columbia. She's seventeen years old and has an older sister. She enjoys spending time with her friends, traveling, going to concerts, and photography. Next year Brooke has plans to attend a school for ministry called Freedom Academy in Hereford, England.
Brooke has taken all honors English courses since the eighth grade and is very much interested in writing and journalism. She enjoys getting to voice her own opinion on issues while getting to analyze others' work as well. As a member of the yearbook staff here at Airport, she is excited to see how the two courses come together to influence her writing. She likes to read/watch a broad spectrum of news broadcasting outlets to be able to form a greater understanding for what stance she has; not letting certain beliefs of news organizations control her personal convictions.
Writing for The Eryie is an exciting opportunity to learn and grow in her education of journalism. She wishes to write on global events, music, and popular culture. She wants to interview students on these topics and give them a voice in our paper. She also wants to include her own photo stories.
Collyn R.
Collyn is a senior at Airport High School. He is a member of both the football team and the weightlifting team here at Airport. Collyn has also been a teacher cadet, a yearbook staff member, and a B-27 member. He is still deciding where he wants to continue his education, but plans on majoring in Exercise Science and becoming a Strength and Conditioning coach.
Since taking English I at Fulmer Middle School with Mr. Agosin, he has gone on to complete English II with Mrs. Flowers, English III with Mrs. Rasmussen, and English IV with Mr. Fowler. As a sophomore he was a member of the yearbook staff so by completing that course he has some journalism knowledge. Collyn has in interests in sports news around the school and the community. The news show that he says helps the most when regarding sports is Sportscenter.
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Outside of school Collyn enjoys hanging out with his family and his friends. In his spare time he is either goofing around or competing in powerlifting competitions. He hopes to be one of The Eyrie’s sports journalists. Besides writing about sports Collyn also has the ability to take some photographs as he learned in Yearbook.
Courtney W.
Courtnie is a senior at Airport High School. She is a very active student who participates in many clubs and activities. She is the Student Body Master of Revels for her student council, Cooperation Coordinator of the National Art Honor Society, and the Senior Representative of the French Club. She is a varsity cheerleader, former member of the orchestra, and involved in the cosmetology program at her school.
Courtnie’s qualifications for writing The Eyrie include taking English I-IV, being apart of the multimedia class, and also having her work published. She plans to show people what matters most to her in her own life through her articles. She has experience in portraying news through the announcements and has had the opportunity to learn a lot about cameras. This in turn will help her add photographs and interest to the articles she records.
Courtnie, when not in school, likes to be involved in her community. She volunteers with the South Carolina Autism Society, an organization that means so much to her. She believes it is important to speak up for others who may not be able to speak up for themselves. She is also a huge animal lover. She often finds herself at the animal shelter walking and learning to train the dogs. After high school, she plans to go to college to become an Elementary Art Teacher where she can combine two of her passions: art and working with little kids.
Destiny P.
Destiny was born at Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital. She is currently living in Gaston, SC with her parents. Her freshman year, she played golf and cheered for Airport High School, which was a great experience for her. However, she got to participate in different
events for golf and cheer which I competed against different schools. Destiny is currently in her sophomore year at Airport High School which has being good so far.
Destiny just completed English II last semester and I loved it because she had a very good teacher and was always was doing something interesting. To her, she's just a really fun teacher. She told Destiny to take English III and these classes should help me prepare for journalism. Therefore, both English II and English III are teaching her writing skills . Destiny hasn't really had any experience
with media, but she wants that to change before the end of the school year. Destiny does not like to watch the news, however,
because it's an infinite source of negativity which bothers her emotions sometimes.
When outside of school, Destiny likes to be around some of my friends and family. On the weekend, they sometimes go out to eat and church on Sunday.In her spare time, she likes to eat and sleep. Her hobbies are watching movies, crocheting and cooking. She would love to write on The Eyrie on things that teens will enjoy reading.
Emily B.
Emily is a senior at Airport High School. Her birthday is August 31, 2000, and she is currently enrolled in Journalism. She is thrilled to be now part of the school newspaper and is looking forward to this semester. What caught her attention to be in this class was to gain more experience when it came to writing. Although Emily has taken four courses of English, not including Journalism, she has some experience in writing, but not enough to prepare for the field of study she wants to major in. Her interest has always been in solving puzzles and unraveling mysteries, which has led Emily to believe that criminal justice might be the study she wants to major in. Writing will play a big part so that is why it is important to her to take this class, and the plus side is that she will be more aware of her surroundings, so she can see what to write about in her next article. She will mostly be writing about the students' lives and their input in recent news, or school’s rules. Other than school, in her free time she loves to go out shopping or to watch a movie with friends and family.
Gracey is a senior at Airport High School. She was born in West Columbia, South Carolina almost 18 years ago and lives with her mother and sister, Mary and Josey. Gracey is a four-year varsity volleyball player and a five-year varsity softball player. She also plays club volleyball for Lake Murray Volleyball Club on the 18 National Black team.
Gracey has a lot of experience in writing; she has taken all honors English classes beginning in 8th grade. Gracey was an editor on the Aquila yearbook staff for 3 years. A fun fact about Gracey is that she designed the Snapchat geofilter for Airport!
When she is not on campus, Gracey enjoys traveling, listening to music, shopping, and spending time with her puppy, Spade. Gracey also loves anything that allows her to be creative, such as photography and many types of art. She plans to continue her education and volleyball career at a school where she can study graphic design. She strives to own a graphic design business of her own one day.
Gracey is a kind and strong-minded young lady, and she is very quick-witted. She hopes to write about fashion trends, Airport athletics, or anything else she believes the students at Airport need to know.
Gracey D.
Jacob L.
Jacob is an 18 year old student student at Airport High School with only two classes this semester. He has lived in South Carolina all of his life. Jacob lives with his family that consists of his mother, father, younger sister and younger brother. At Airport High School he is a senior and excited about his last year of high school. Jacob doesn't play sports at school but in free time enjoys many activities such as football, basketball, soccer, and really beach volleyball with friends. Also activities Jacob loves are fishing, hiking, hunting, camping, and skeet shooting targets. He manages to do all these activities and focus on a successful school career.
Jacob has taken all honors English classes since the start of English I Honors in 8th grade year. Although he has no experience in journalism or media from classes he chose the journalism class to enhance writing techniques and learn a new skill that may be useful in college and career world in his near future.
He hopes that this journalism class can make it where the school newsletter becomes more popular and can grow to be as cool and well known as it once was. He would like to help the students as well as staff know what is going on and be kept up to date. Jacob wants The Eyrie to grow and people will look forward to reading it.
James H.
James is a senior at Airport High and has been coming to Airport since his freshman year. James lives in West Columbia and was born in Palmetto Health Richland Hospital. He had played outfield and catcher in baseball since the eighth grade through the tenth grade, and now James has played tennis for two years. He is also a active member in student government as the senior class treasurer, and this is his second year being involved in the group. James plans on going to the Citadel where he plans on majoring in nursing hoping to go into pararescue in the United States military.
James had taken English II through IV since being at Airport, and is now taking Journalism. James this semester is also taking AP government and economics, and student leadership. James knows very little about Journalism but by the end of the semester he plans on being more advanced in his writing. He plans on writing about sports around the school.
When James is not writing he likes to do crossfit, witch is a type of different types of workouts. He also likes to play tennis, football, baseball and any other types of sports. James likes to hunt and fish too.
Justin R.
Justin is a senior at Airport High School. He plays football as linebacker and long snapper and has been a member of the team since 9th grade. He is also a member of the B-27 club. Justin says he is planning to sign to play football in college but hasn't made up his mind on where he wants to go yet. He wants to major in Kinesiology to become a physical therapist and athletic trainer.
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Justin has attended Airport High School since 9th grade and has taken English I through IV. He has very little experience in journalism, but wants to gain more knowledge on it throughout the semester. Although he has very little pre-existing interest in the news he has seen a lot of newspaper articles in English class, and having had Mrs.Fowler and Ms.Frith has helped prepare him to write plenty of articles so he thinks he will do fine as a journalist.
Outside of school Justin said he likes to hangout or play pickup football games with his friends, watch movies, play PlayStation, fishing, or working out with one of his best friends Collyn. Justin said his plans for The Eyrie are writing about sports at Airport and the collegiate level and having photos to go with his articles.
Kylum M.
Kylum is a current senior at Airport High School. He’s 17 years old, but doesn’t participate in any extracurricular activities. Kylum is from Manning, South Carolina and has lived in Columbia for his past few years. Kylum lives with his mom and stepdad, an older brother who graduated from Airport last year, and an younger sister who goes here too.
Although Kylum has in writing newspapers for the the school, or newspapers in general, he hopes to learn something from taking journalism. Kylum wants to write about current events going on it today’s world and sports like basketball, and football for The Eyrie. He would also like to contribute to The Eyrie by drawing pictures or making comics. He usually watches Fox News or The Today Show in the mornings, so he knows a few things about news journalism.
Kylum enjoys sleeping and playing video games in his free time. He likes to listen to a lot of music. He also takes up fishing, playing football and basketball outside of school, especially with his friends. He loves spending time with his family. Some of his dislikes are being bored or just not having fun doing anything. Kylum likes to draw as well. His favorite subjects are science and social studies and hopes to squeeze journalism in there.
Luis A.
Luis Andrade is a senior student-athlete at Airport High School, who is currently enrolled in Journalism. Being part of the School’s soccer program ever since the 7th grade, Luis is quite familiar with Airport’s history, such as the various ghost encounters of the late George I Pair. Born and raised in South Carolina, he is an excellent candidate for The Eyrie. Outside of school, Luis participated in local soccer club Congaree Rapid for the past three years. Leading his club team to state the past two years, he is well known in the soccer community. Although this is his first year of Journalism, Luis is well capable of learning everything it takes to become a master journalist. After high school, Luis plans on majoring in Electrical Engineering at USC and continuing to play soccer. In his spare time, he loves to spend time with family and friends and travel to new places. Luis is very laid back and understandable, he is often counted on for his views on topics. Even though he is inexperienced, he wants to demonstrate his worth. He is planning on writing sports compositions, keeping the school updated on both the girls and boys varsity soccer teams throughout their 2018 season.
Lindsey Sightler is a seventeen year old senior at Airport High School. She was born on March 28, 2000. Lindsey lives with her fourteen year old sister, her mother, and grandparents. Her father lost his life to cancer in the year 2012. If she ever becomes rich, she plans to donate a large sum of the money to cancer research and to finding a cure. She believes that no one should have to go through seeing their loved ones deteriorate to such a horrible disease. Lindsey’s personality is very shy and quiet until you get to know her. In her free time Lindsey enjoys reading poem books by Rupi Kaur, playing video games and sleeping. Some of Lindsey’s dislikes are when people smack their food and when people interrupt her. She has a total of five dogs and three cats that are all indoors. Lindsey plays varsity soccer for Airport and is planning to commit to a college to continue playing. She is going to college to be a preschool special education teacher. She is very involved in the special Olympic program at Airport High School as well as the school her mother teaches at. Lindsey has no background in writing other than her previous English classes, she hopes that being in journalism will help her learn to put her thoughts into words. She hopes to write about topics involving the special education program.
Lindsey S.
McKenzie is a fifteen year old sophomore, born in Greenwood and moving to Columbia after seventh grade. She has attended Airport High School since the beginning of freshman year. She participates in many theatre productions, the AHS Marching Band, and volunteers her time at many social events.
She enjoys cooking, singing, playing instruments, and relaxing by the pool in her free time. Her favorite hobby is sleeping, or watching Broadway on YouTube. She plans to attend the Cordon Bleu culinary institute in Charleston to earn a degree in hospitality, and move on to earn a degree in Business Management, but refuses to give up writing in her spare time. For recent years, she has applied to the South Carolina Governor’s School of Arts and Humanities under the major of Creative Writing.
McKenzie has very little writing experience besides writing fiction on teen sites such as Wattpad, but she hopes that upon working for The Eyrie, she will grow more confident in her skills. To be truthful, nonfiction isn’t truly her passion, so she’d love to write short stories to entertain others, of perhaps become involved in photography for The Eyrie, though has no complaints writing about events that she may see unfolding in a way others miss.
“One small crack does not mean that you are broken. It means that you were put to the test and you didn’t fall apart.”
-Linda Poindexter
McKenzie C.
Morgan is currently in her senior year at Airport High school. She was born and has lived in Columbia all of her life. She lives with her parents and pets who she loves dearly. When at home, she watches countless crime mysteries with her mom, one of their favorite pastimes. While her dad loves watching politically driven news stations she chooses to steer clear of those in hopes of avoiding conflicts within her family / friend groups.
When she isn't in a classroom or at home, you can most likely always find Morgan in the band room, basically her second home. She has participated in not only Airport high school marching and concert band, but national marching Honor bands. She plays the euphonium and has been to numerous leadership functions for band.
When it comes to writing, she may not be the strongest but her real strengths are found in the art aspects of journalism. Photography and visual art are her true talents when publishing is the task at hand. She spent her sophomore year on both the Eye on the Eagle news team and the Stop and Pause yearbook staff, specializing in props and unique page designs, respectively. Her hopes for this semester are to both grow her artistic strengths even more, and to be able to write an article someone would love to read.
Morgan O.
Nicholas R.
Nicholas is 18 and currently a Senior at Airport High School. He was born and raised near Orangeburg, in a small town named North, where he still resides, living with his grandparents (Deborah and Norris). Sports and government have never been fun for him, so he instead sticks to theater and psychology.
As for prior journalism experience, Nick has little in the field of journalism. He does, however, take an interest in mystery. TV shows like Law and Order or NCIS and books like Hangman's Curse are some examples. News has also been an important part of his life, to know what's going on in the world or just his usual community.
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Personality wise, Nick is a kind and caring individual. He wants to help any one he can. He tends to enjoy the little and big things in life, always looking for adventure and a smiling face. Traveling, reading and helping others are all on a list of his favorite pastimes. While writing for The Eyrie, Nick hopes to cover on the small things most students miss, such as the work teachers put in (before, during, and after school when students are away), the special needs class, and all volunteer work in and around the school.
Nick hopes to attend college and become a psychologist after high school.
Nizir S.
Nizir Santiago is an eighteen year old born in Lexington, South Carolina. He is now currently living in South Congaree. He is a senior in this high school. He does not participate in many extracurricular activities. He does not have any type previous information to help with journalism.The only previous information he has from class to help with journalism would be his previous ELA vclasses that he has taken.He has a bunch of interest in things that are unknown and or unsolved. He normally watches the news that comes on during the day. He has plenty of likes and plenty of dislikes. He likes to try and play many sports. He doesn't like being stuck in the same place for a long time without something to do.In his spare time he likes to do whatever comes to his mind.His interest can change like his range from learning something new to drawing,sports,or learning how to play an instrument.He hopes to write some about interesting things that are more new.He would maybe like to help out some with the artwork.
Shelby S.
Shelby Sanders is a senior here at Airport High and reporter for the school newspaper, The Eyrie. They prefer gender neutral pronouns, but they are a biological female. Their favorite colors are black, blue, purple, and green. Generally a quite shy person, Shelby doesn’t often participate in the loud, boisterous sports many other students find entertaining. They’re a supporter of the LGBT community, considering they’re a out and proud panromantic pansexual. They was born in the year of the dragon, and their astrological sign is Gemini. They loves to draw, mostly in the anime format many art teachers don’t consider an art style. They also enjoy the great endeavor of drone racing, a new sport with much potential. They think they’re a great fit for The Eyrie because they have taken digital multimedia class, meaning they served on the school news program, Eye On The Eagle. They also enjoy digital art classes, including Animation, Image Editing, etc. They find joy in writing poetry and shorts stories, along with Star Wars: the Clone Wars fanfiction. Their main focus for journalism is more LGBT-based articles, because often they find it that their issues aren’t reported often, and generally one goes with what they know.
Timothy M.
Timothy is a senior at Airport High School. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina and lives there still to this day. He is not a participant of any sport or activities for Airport but works at O'Reillys and also owns his own personal business, T’s Pressure Washing. He is always willing to help anybody and never is he negative towards anybody; he always tries to brightens everybody day that he comes in contact with. Timothy is looking to be a power pole electrician in his future and is planning on going to Midlands Technical College for two years and University of South Carolina for an additional two years to reach these goals. Timothy is not the best writer but has plenty of experience by taking Englishes I-IV which he started in the 8th grade and now also taking Journalism, in which which he plans to talk about how to prepare oneself everyday for school and what it takes to succeed in every class a student will take. He wants to influence students to always stay positive and give everything their 110% effort and to strive for success. Besides Timothy being a part of the newspaper, he likes to build and modify cars and trucks in his spare time, no matter if it’s friends and family or his he’s always tinkering with everybody’s vehicles and trying to encourage them to do the same thing. If Timothy is not at work or modifying cars, he is normally sleeping, eating or just chilling out with friends and trying his best to make everybody laugh and have a great time.
Victoria F.
Victoria was born and raised in West Columbia, South Carolina. She is an 18 year old who is a senior at Airport High School who plans to attend USC Aiken and major in nursing. She lives with her mother, stepdad, four brothers and her sister in Gaston, South Carolina. Victoria played on the Airport volleyball team all four years of high school but does not wish to continue and play in college.
Although she hasn't taken any courses to prepare for journalism and also doesn't have any experience in student media, Victoria wishes to learn a lot and hopes this class will help her in her future. Victoria watches the news every once in a blue moon, and her favorite channel for local news is WIS News 10.
Besides just going to school in her spare time she enjoys spending time with her four year old brother, going shopping, traveling, eating, sleeping, and having a good time with friends and family. Victoria dislikes for her hair not to be done, the smell of smoke, reading, and waking up early. This year in journalism, Victoria wants to write about sports for The Eyrie; she also would like to contribute photography and artwork.