The 2020-2021 school year has been characterized by new beginnings, trial and error, and, most recently, a return to a sense of normalcy. During this time, The Nexus staff has worked hard to cover individuals and stories relevant to our readers, striving for the highest standard of journalistic reporting. For our final Staff Editorial of the year, The Nexus staff would like to extend our gratitude to several people, on and off campus, who made our newspaper and website possible. 

First and foremost, to the students and faculty for their openness and honesty with The Nexus staff, thank you. Your willingness to talk about your experiences, both good and bad, make this newspaper worth reading. From sharing your personal testimonies on sensitive issues to giving us insight into your lives at home, you have helped us make stories that readers can connect to in these disconnected times. 

To Principal Tina Ziegler, thank you for your support throughout this uncertain year and your enthusiasm in answering any and all of our questions. Your transparency was instrumental in helping us tell meaningful stories that informed our student body on schoolwide issues and updates within the Westview community. 

To our counselors—Alisa Berner, Christine Cudmore, Vanessa Ho, Ruben Mata and Katie Ramirez—thank you for making time in your busy schedules to interview with us. We know that this year has brought many unforeseen challenges, and we appreciate your insight into several topics we covered this past year. 

To ASB Adviser Shannon Parker, thank you for taking the time to talk to us about the virtual and on-campus events ASB hosted this year. Your role has been essential in helping The Nexus staff achieve one of our main goals: providing transparency and insight about events within our community. 

To Athletic Director Steve McLaughlin and the athletic coaches, thank you for providing the information and statistics for your teams and players. Your resources gave us the opportunity to highlight sports even while they were cut short, reminding our readers of Westview’s school spirit. 

To PUSD Board Clerk Darshana Patel and Associate Superintendent Carol Osborne, thank you for providing The Nexus staff with information regarding the reopening of Poway Unified schools. Your eagerness to answer our questions allowed students to stay informed and instilled a sense of peace within these uncertain times.  

To former Nexan Mattie Sanseverino, thank you for your time and your wisdom in the world of online journalism. The work you have done and the examples you shared inspired us to redesign our website and continue to try new things in this relatively new world of digital journalism. Our transition from print to online could not have been possible without you. 

To Art Wolfe and the rest of the custodial staff, thank you for keeping our school clean and running while the rest of us were Zooming from home. We are thankful for the clean working environment you provide in room L104 during and after our press nights. 

To our advertisers, for choosing to place advertisements in our first and final print issue of this year. We recognize that no advertisement is cheap and that without your business, The Nexus would not be able to support and achieve this level of student journalism.  

As always, to Jeff Wenger, our adviser, for being a constant source of inspiration. Whether it be at 8 p.m. press nights, or on the Zoom screen, your guidance has helped us become the journalists and people we are today. Thank you for editing our articles late at night, for keeping our online publication running, and for pushing us to always be our best both in and out of the classroom. 

And last, but certainly not least, to our readers. The writers, photographers, and artists new to our staff had to learn a new way of journalism this year, and your continued interest in us made this challenge worth it. You fueled the ideas we brought to the News section, the issues we talked about in Opinions, and the people we covered in Features. Thank you all for your words of support and helpful critiques of our stories. You’ve helped us accomplish our mission to produce quality and effective journalism. We look forward to your continued support in September!

*An abbreviated version of this article was published in print.