As the school year comes to a close, Zephyrus staff will longingly miss the presence of Celia Vedder and her stylish outfits in the publications room during seventh period.

Celia was first drawn to Zephyrus due to her love for journalism. After applying and being accepted onto staff as a freshman in spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the remainder of the school year and her upcoming sophomore year to be partly held online. 

“When I was on [Zephyrus] online, I just felt isolated, but through Z-squads, as a sophomore I felt more connected. Especially in meeting people from other grades, I felt like that was a really great resource to network and connect with others,” Celia said. “Now that I’m a senior, I’m so happy it’s a safe space. At the end of the day, [it’s] a good place to all come together.”

During her three years on staff, Celia explored photojournalism and podcasts, improved her writing skills, and most notably interviewed her former Interior Design teacher about her journey as a surrogate. Her involvement with fellow students increased as she met and helped mentor new staff members as the features section editor for the 2021-22 school year. Being a section editor came with the responsibility of designing pages with Adobe InDesign, a program notorious for destroying section editors’ patience; however, it failed to thwart Celia’s progress.

“I feel like I’ve grown so much as a person. I’ve just gotten much more comfortable with my writing through Zephyrus and much more comfortable with myself overall,” Celia said.

 After graduation, she eagerly awaits the classic college experience. “I’m just looking forward to expanding my horizons, seeing what else is out there, exploring, and meeting new people overall, but I’m mostly excited to get a bigger perspective on life through college,” she said.

Though she may not be pursuing journalism, Celia will be putting her Zephyrus-acquired skills to work this fall at Loyola University Chicago. “Next year, I’m going to be majoring in econ with a pre-law track, so I’m hoping to go law school,” Celia said. “‘Legally Blonde’ over here.”

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on May 18, 2023.