Last spring, two Edina High School students created a website for speech and debate students to quickly update themselves on a current issue or subject.

The Argus Chronicle, with a name taken from the all-seeing hundred-eyed giant from Greek mythology (feel free to interpret that as you’d like), is a website with posts consisting of analysis of various current events: these range from the Syrian refugee crisis to political candidate profiles. What’s special about these posts is that they’re very concise: length rarely surpasses a few paragraphs.

“In debate, we often need to know about certain issues and subjects; we don’t have a lot of time to get that information. So the idea kind of grew from there. We would take events in the news and condense them,” said senior Arvind Veluvali, co-president and editor in chief of Argus as well as a member of the debate team. “The main reason that sites like Twitter are so popular is because everything comes to us in convenient, smaller sizes, which are easier for us to find time for in our busy lives.”

While the website was serving its purpose as a tool for debate and speech students, senior Matias Figari, co-president and outreach director of the website, saw that “this could become something even more awesome” on his trip to Peru last spring.

In Peru, Figari interned at a school, one of his tasks involved training teachers. “After spending so much the at the school, I realized how necessary it is that everyone get the opportunity to learn, but more than anything the opportunity to learn well,” said Figari.

The new mission of Argus is spreading education, and Peru, a part of the world without the luxury of effective and successful education that we have here at EHS, was a prime place to do so. “I don’t really have a connection to Peru, but something about expanding Argus into something tangible, where we could clearly see an impact on others, really resonated with me,” said Veluvali.

The idea to spread education in Peru was only the beginning, though.

“Yeah, the paperwork was a lot,” said Veluvali.

They first had to file to become a corporation within the state of Minnesota, then fill out forms for tax codes and obtain a license for charitable solicitation. They also had to become an official nonprofit by meeting with IRS representatives and filing even more paperwork. “The whole process was pretty strenuous because it was a lot of work with very little room for error,” said Veluvali.

The website has a “Donate” page where anyone can donate, tax free, to the school that is partnered with Argus in Peru, Fundación Ninos del Arco Iris. As of right now, the Argus Chronicle has raised over $300 dollars in donations, and the founders intend on hosting a fundraiser in the near future to secure more money.

Another staff member who helps the cause is the head artist, senior Olivia Chen. “I started drawing cartoons for [Argus] and basically just read articles and draw what can provide more insight on the topic of the article that you can’t get from just reading it,” said Chen.

Anyone can write for Argus. “Basically you’d submit a list of topics for approval by the editor in chief (me). I’d approve up to all of them, and you’d write one or more of them. I’ll put it up on the site” said Veluvali. There is a “Write for Argus” page on the site that sums up how to do so pretty well. The website even has a guest writer from Colorado named Eric.

If advocating for global education isn’t enough incentive to write for Argus, journalistic experience looks great on a college application, and Argus is something you can do without a significant time commitment.

Go to http://arguschronicle.org/ to explore the website, donate, or become up-to-date on various current events!