As members of the Class of 2025, editors on the Editorial Board, and the Editor-in-Chief of the King Street Chronicle, we are grateful for the opportunity to enlighten readers about current events happening in our school, community, nation, and world.  As we approach this year with confidence in the abilities we have learned as writers and editors, we remain committed to teaching our new and returning reporters how to become critical thinkers and discover their own journalistic voices.  In our final days on King Street, we hope to inspire our journalists and believe in their achievements, so they can learn to believe in themselves.

To kick off the 2024-2025 school year, senior Mackenzie Gillen, Executive Board President, introduced Sacred Heart Greenwich’s Upper School theme of Believe to Achieve.  She discussed how the leadership and vision of the Class of 2024, the Class of 2023, and the Class of 2022 prompted her to choose this theme. 

“My number one hope as Executive Board President is to leave a lasting impact on younger students,” Mackenzie said.  “When I started in the Upper School as a freshman, the student council members were the ones who really welcomed me into the community.  Throughout my high school years, each president has played a huge role in my trajectory as an individual.  Like my predecessors, I want everyone to remember the 2024-2025 school year as a time in their life when they worked hard, played hard, and learned something new about themselves and those around them.”

In the spirit of positively impacting the community, as the Editorial Board of the King Street Chronicle, we pledge to instill the value of using the press to ameliorate lives.  By advocating for the truth, we can bring awareness to our community and the world. 

As avid reporters, Goal Three of the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria aligns with our mission as a publication, “a social awareness which impels to action.”  We seek to provide our readers with impartial and reliable news so that they can cultivate their own opinions.  Equally, we endeavor to excavate hidden and suppressed stories in our community to bring greater attention to important causes.

For the 2024-2025 school year, we are honored to welcome 14 new staff writers to the King Street Chronicle Newsroom.  We intend to teach them to foster their unique voices through our supportive and collaborative environment.

Mackenzie spoke about the importance of having faith in others.  She emphasized the correlation this belief has with success.

“I believe that knowing other people believe in you makes you more willing to believe in yourself and face difficult challenges,” Mackenzie said.  “By making the theme of Believe to Achieve, I hope I am telling other Sacred Heart students that I have faith in their abilities.  Maybe then they’ll take that next step and think about themselves that way.”

We aim to continue the network of communication and camaraderie within the Newsroom that functions like the organs in a body.  A body cannot exist without each of its parts.  All the parts cannot function by themselves.  Thus, for our paper to function efficiently, we will support and believe in each other so that we can individually and collectively reach our full potential. 

Indeed, Goal Two also illuminates our mission as a publication to encourage “a deep respect for intellectual values.”  As writers, we must channel our passion and beliefs into our work.  Beliefs are the internal force driving our everyday actions.  They sculpt our perspective of the world around us.  They are how we make decisions.  As our Sacred Heart education has taught us, questioning our beliefs helps us cultivate humility and view reality with clarity.  Through the written and multimedia news we create, we intend to examine our beliefs in order to uncover objective truths about life.

As leaders of the King Street Chronicle and the Upper School, we strive to guide our Sacred Heart community with the same “courage and confidence” St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, lived out during her lifetime.  Ultimately, we approach our positions on the Editorial Board with respect, humility, ambition, and thankfulness.  As we prepare for our futures beyond King Street, we aim to believe in ourselves and others so that together we can impact the world, one individual at a time. 

It is with ineffable gratitude for our readers that we are pleased to welcome you to our final year with the King Street Chronicle. 

Featured Image Courtesy of Sophia Lostumbo ’25