From the time she could talk, Claudia Chen ’16 was always keeping herself busy whether it was scoring points on the tennis court or writing stories and poems. At a young age Chen ’16 knew she wanted to be a writer. She would write poems and stories on whatever she could get her hands on. She said, “One time I tried to write a novel and I was so excited”, Chen ’16 said while laughing, “70 pages into it and I swear it made zero sense.” This her second year writing for Inklings and she couldn’t be more excited to bring her love of writing to Inklings. She believes that Inklings is a great opportunity to practice her writing skills in a realistic sense. When Chen ’16 isn’t writing you can find her on a tennis court. She hasn’t played for Staples tennis but she’s hoping to in the spring. She likes to de-stress on the tennis court and have a good time. She sounds like your all-American girl but that’s not the case. Her parents were born in China resulting in Chen’s first language being Chinese. It doesn’t just end there; her grandparents come from Austria. She loves the idea that she comes from so many different cultures. As hard as Chen ’16 works, she wants to make the most of junior year and have a good time being an upper-classmen. As hard as she works on her serves in tennis and critiquing her writing skills she says what she hopes to get out of life is, “It sounds cheesy but I want to know that I made a difference in at least one person’s life.” That’s a goal we should all strive for. Claudia Chen ’16 could not be more excited for what her junior year holds.

Normally when thinking about the typical high school the athletes don’t really mix with the kid of the newspaper staff. Talia Hendel ’16 defies these expectations. Not only does she write for the paper but she also manages to play on the Girls’ basketball team and teach special needs students how to play with Circle of Friends. “It was the perfect opportunity for me, I love kids and I love playing basketball. So it just fit,” Hendel said. When Hendel decided to take this class she quickly learned that she would only be taking the class for the course credits. She has developed a passion for journalism and hopes to continue with it into her college career. So next time you see a story with her name under it, drop what you are doing and read it. You could be seeing the first works of the next buzzfeed editor.