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The Student News Site of High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering

The Echo

The Student News Site of High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering

The Echo

The Student News Site of High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering

The Echo

2023-2024 Staff

Zoe Otto
Editor in Chief

Zoe Otto

Zoe is a senior at HSMSE and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Echo. Beyond the C5 newsroom, you can find Zoe getting her fifth (sixth?) coffee of the day at Cafe One, rewatching Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes (and perfecting he...

Orlena Fella
Editor in Chief, Head Designer, Staff Writer, Artist

Orlena Fella

Orlena still remembers the immense sigh of relief when people actually showed up for MSE's first student newspaper meet. The Echo has grown faster than Orlena could have imagined and although she'll miss its humble beginnings,...

Astrid Clayton
Managing Editor, Features Section Editor, Staff Writer

Astrid Clayton

Astrid joined The Echo in 2022 as a founding member because they like editing and writing about their interests (mainly movies and sports). Astrid is passionate about karate, jiu-jitsu, and biochemistry, and they are also an avid...

Ella-Devi Weerackody
Head Culture Editor, Social Media Manager, Staff Writer

Ella-Devi Weerackody

Ella Devi has been on the Echo team since its founding in 2022. She writes frequently about everything culture-related as she believes that studying our culture is vital to cultivating a healthy society. Her favorite activity...

Jayden Cedano
Staff Writer, Community Section Editor, Layout Team, Webmaster

Jayden Cedano

Jayden joined The Echo right before its first issue was released in 2023. Since then he’s written, edited, and contributed art for articles, as well as managing The Echo’s website theechohsmse.com. Jayden is concerned mostly...

Md Islam
Writer, Editor, Section head

Md Islam

Md has been at The Echo since its humble beginning in 2022. He kicked off the very first issue by interviewing Mr. Swenson and has done several interviews and spotlights since. Although he's very serious about giving a voice to...

Eli Gologanova
Head Editor, Copy-chief, Artist

Eli Gologanova

Eli joined the Echo at the start of the 2nd issue. She loves grammatical editing and occasionally contributes digital drawings to the newspaper. Her favourite writing hot take is that British spelling is often, but not always,...

Willow Mintz
Advice Column Section Editor, Staff Writer

Willow Mintz

Willow has been a member of the Echo since its third edition in early 2023. She is a junior who enjoys baking and Taylor Swift and both of these hobbies are displayed in her writing. Her favorite food is pizza and her favorite...

Feng Yi Yang
Community News Section Editor, Staff Writer

Feng Yi Yang

Feng Yi has been at The Echo since founding of the club. He greatly appreciates the faculty at HSMSE and believes that the faculty should give their history on who they are. He has already written about school issues, interviews...

Kent He
Perspectives Section Leader, Staff Writer

Kent He

Kent has been in The Echo since its start in 2022. He is the section head for perspectives writing, and tries to write things about the school from the students' point of view. He hopes that his writing brings more connectivity...

Asher Moskowitz
Sports Section Editor, Music Section Editor, Secretary, Staff Writer

Asher Moskowitz

Asher has been at The Echo since spring 2023. He is The Echo's first and current sports columnist covering athletics every issue. In addition to being a sports fan, he is passionate about music and gaming.

Ronald Szeto
Satire Editor, Staff Writer

Ronald Szeto

Ronald has been at The Echo since its start in 2022. Ronald often writes ridiculous articles, from ants to hamsters to Roombas. He likes writing these articles to mask messages to the school community in a more humorous voice....

Emily Dow
Art Director, Staff Writer, Artist, Website Design Team

Emily Dow

Emily is a founding member of The Echo, excluding the first ever newspaper club meeting which she did not attend. She enjoys ranting for hours about topics you may have heard of but definitely have no interest in and she revels...

Maddy Grosso
Staff Writer, Layout Team

Maddy Grosso

Maddy is a senior who joined The Echo in the Fall of 2023 as a writer and layout designer. Being a part of the newspaper pushes them to do their best, and they love seeing how much their drafts can improve after going through...

Julian Nguyen
Staff Writer, Website Design Team

Julian Nguyen

Since the start of the 2023–2024 school year, Julian has been hard at work writing for The Echo, as he feels it is an amazing way to channel his favorite value: creativity. He loves film and television, which shows up quite...

Diego Benitez
Staff Writer

Diego Benitez

Diego Benitez is a sophomore from Washington Heights. They started out writing for The Echo in the after school club, and later switched to writing full time in the elective. Diego usually writes articles on school related issues...

Adonis Capellan Cedano
Staff Writer

Adonis Capellan Cedano

Adonis has been at The Echo ever since September of 2023. He is a student at HSMSE and tends to stay optimistic. Adonis often writes about current events in the media. Adonis is also Popeye's supplier of spinach.

Lucas Dotoli
Staff Writer

Lucas Dotoli

Luke has been working at The Echo since the start of the 2023-2024 school year. Luke often writes about student opinions as the Echo is a paper for the people. His favorite activities include skiing and playing the guitar.

Clodagh Finucane
Staff Writer

Clodagh Finucane

Clodagh has been at The Echo since the beginning of the 2023 school year. She enjoys writing for The Echo because it gives her an opportunity to meet new people and be creative! Her favorite kind of articles to write include student...

Matthew Fung
Staff Writer

Matthew Fung

Matthew started writing for The Echo as an outlet for his immense passion on transit. He noticed an extreme lack of coverage on the subway system and was motivated to join The Echo. He has researched a lot on the subway and is...

Evelyn Hernandez-Gaspa
Staff Writer

Evelyn Hernandez-Gaspa

Evelyn has enjoyed working on The Echo since the start of the 2023 school year. Evelyn is a designer who enjoys all things fashion. She also recently has developed an interest for writing which she pursues here at The Echo. Evelyn...

Jason Huang
Staff Writer, Editor, Layout Team

Jason Huang

Jason has been at The Echo ever since it became an elective in 2023. He likes hanging out with his pals and running around the city. He tries to write about funny topics, but sometimes they flop. No worries though because he just...

Lear Kelmendi
Staff Writer

Lear Kelmendi

Lear has been a satirical writer for the Echo since early 2023. On the day of the first issue's release, he got inspired by the creativity and the sheer energy of the newspaper, so he decided to join, wanting to contribute to...

Noah Kim
Staff Writer

Noah Kim

Noah Kim is a junior at HSMSE. His hobbies include cooking, board games, and chilling with friends. Recently, he has picked up randomly binging k-dramas and learning to code. He gets dizzy when he looks up at the endless sky....

Annalie Merkel
Staff Writer

Annalie Merkel

Annalie spends her time playing sports and watching “One Tree Hill.” If she isn't hiding in her room or at practice, you can find her out with friends. She could probably also be found at her favorite dumpling restaurant with...

Alexander Moore
Staff Writer

Alexander Moore

This is Alexander’s first year of writing at The Echo. He likes writing about HSMSE sport teams. He also likes to write about more obscure sports because he finds it interesting to learn about the sport and be able to share...

Adeola Oke
Staff Writer

Adeola Oke

Adeola is a senior at HSMSE and has been at The Echo since Issue 2. She enjoys collaborating with others and talking about the issues once they are out. Adeola has written about animals and recently started the Ask it Forward...

Gareth Reis
Staff Writer

Gareth Reis

Gareth has been with The Echo writing about transit and politics since the beginning of the 2023–24 school year. He is passionate about many diverse things, including trains, politics, hockey, and music. He spends his free time...

Audrey Young
Staff Writer

Audrey Young

Audrey joined The Echo as a sophomore because she finds raising awareness about different topics of the school very important. She also loves being able to interact with so many different people, which is why she loves incorporating...

Maya Grauer
Staff Writer, Editor

Maya Grauer

Maya joined The Echo this year, for the beginning of her sophomore year. She loves writing in the arts and culture section of the newspaper, sharing her love for books and music with people, and cannot wait to continue being a...

Ocean Hiller
Staff Writer, Editor

Ocean Hiller

Ocean is a junior who has written and edited for The Echo since Fall 2023. He believes that journalism is a powerful tool to bring the HSMSE community together and make the world a better place. Ocean loves to study culture in...

Charlize Prifti
Staff Writer, Editor

Charlize Prifti

Charlize has been in The Echo newspaper elective since its beginning in 2023. Charlize is in the arts and culture section in the newspaper. Recently, she has written articles about movies or about opportunities to express student's...

Siona Lewis-Coffey
Staff Writer, Artist, Editor, Layout Team

Siona Lewis-Coffey

Siona finds it impossible to say "no" to anything in The Echo newsroom. As such, she has become involved in many parts of its production: writing, editing, layout, and art. She loves helping people make their articles as good...

Joven Wu
Artist, Website Design Team

Joven Wu

Joven is a junior in HSMSE and this is her first year in Echo. She joined Echo because she wants to be part of the crew making the school newspaper happen and let everyone enjoy her art. She's a really good artist, make sure to...

Addison Saji
Staff Writer, Artist

Addison Saji

Addison is a senior who joined The Echo in the Winter of 2024. She loves interviewing people, so writing for the paper gives her an excuse to do this. When she’s not at school, Addison collects CDs, drinks Slurpees, paints,...

Elizabeth Raikes
Staff Writer, Artist

Elizabeth Raikes

Etta, formally known as Elizabeth, has been with the Echo since 2023. She is a social person, and loves that she gets to help people share their stories through the paper. She is a runner, and is part of the school's cross country...

Lorys Moreta
Editor

Lorys Moreta

Lorys joined The Echo this year as a senior who likes cats. She enjoys editing and reading new articles. It’s important to her to contribute her skills to help writers’ ideas be communicated more effectively in their articles.

Oliver Grover
Editor, Staff Writer

Oliver Grover

Oliver has been at The Echo since his sophomore year in 2023. He began as an editor, and still loves it, but he has since also taken on writing and become co-head of the perspectives section of The Echo. He's written articles...

Farah Dackour
Artist

Farah Dackour

Farah's currently a senior at HSMSE and has been on The Echo staff since it's creation. Outside of creating art for The Echo, Farah enjoys playing basketball (and using her height to her advantage), working in her Mount Sinai...

Euler Sumbo
Artist

Euler Sumbo

Euler is a senior who had only recently been a member of The Echo staff. Although he hasn't really participated in many student events, he's more than willing to help where he can as he helps take the load off of the talented...

Arianna Bassini

Arianna Bassini

Arianna Bassini is a founding member of The Echo and serves as Head of Elective. Over the last couple years, she has edited and written, mainly for the Perspectives section, and spearheaded the efforts to get newspaper-wide fedoras....

Phoebe Fried

Phoebe Fried

Phoebe is a founding member of The Echo. She dabbled in editing and writing articles, but ultimately found her calling in designing and formatting the layout of the physical newspaper. As the Head Designer, her dedication to her...