Donate to The Trail - The Student News Site of McIntosh High School
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Our Goal
Your donation supports the student journalists of McIntosh High School. Your contribution allows us to cover our annual website hosting costs, to help pay printing costs for "Back to Mac" magazine, and continuing education for staff, such as SNO trainings and MediaNow! editorial leadership training.
About the Contributors
Grace Lovejoy, Editor-in-Chief
Grace Lovejoy is serving as the Editor-In-Chief for 2024-2025 school year. Lovejoy has been on staff for three years now and served as the Features Editor last year. Lovejoy has won 3 Best of SNO pieces, including her first piece “Collision course: teens and golf cart accidents in Peachtree City” which was the first for the Trail.
Lovejoy has been an Ambassador and a part of McIntosh BETA Club for 2 years. She was involved in the Student Press Law Center’s New Voices program in 2023 and won a Best of Sno award for her story “The five freedoms in the First,” recapping her experience. Lovejoy has been involved in theater for 2 years and has performed and worked backstage on numerous shows. This year she is serving as the Historian for the McIntosh Thespians Troupe.
Lovejoy is eager to meet the new staff and have another successful year on the Trail.
Yasemin Kalpakci, Features Editor
Yasemin Kalpakci is a junior at McIntosh High School and currently serves as the Features Editor for the McIntosh Trail. She joined the Trail staff in early 2024 and was part of the team that won the SNO Distinguished Site Award, the first for the school.
In addition to her journalism accomplishments, Kalpakci has also achieved success in other areas. She and her fellow staffers won a Superior award in GSPA, and her art has been published on the board of education.
Kalpakci has been involved in the Beta Club since elementary school and is an active volunteer at animal shelters and various school activities. She was instrumental in creating her old school's World Food Club, promoting cultural exchange through food.
Outside of school, Kalpakci enjoys listening to Lana Del Rey, creating drama in The Sims, binge-watching Gilmore Girls, and spending hours on Pinterest. Like many high school students, she's uncertain about her future plans but hopes to figure it out soon.
Nyla Kërr, News Editor
News Editor Nyla Kërr is spending her second year on the McIntosh Trail. Kërr has always been passionate about writing and has been honoring her craft for the past six years. She was a part of the first Trail staff to win a School Newspapers Online Distinguished Site award.
Kërr has also received two academic awards for outstanding achievement in biology and English. She has also been awarded the President’s Award for Educational Excellence.
When she is not buried deep in her classwork, Kërr enjoys spending time with her family, playing the guitar and doing calisthenics.
Lily Johnson, Social Media
Lily Johnson is a sophomore at McIntosh High School and is currently serving her second year on the Trail.
Johnson was in Beta Club during middle school at J.C. Booth. She played for the McIntosh women’s lacrosse team. Johnson played for both Varsity and Junior Varsity. She was awarded the Offensive Player of the Year award for Junior Varsity.
During Johnson’s free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors. She loves going on long golf cart rides, watching the sunset and playing lacrosse. She enjoys listening to music and spending time with her friends and family. “I think spending time with family is very important so I try to spend as much time with them as I can.”
CJ Boxhill, Multimedia
CJ Boxhill is a junior at McIntosh and is serving his first year on staff as a part of the Multimedia team. He plans to focus on helping people share their experiences and public speaking opportunities.
Boxhill is a current member of the Spirit of McIntosh Marching Band, he serves a leadership role as percussion logistics in the band. He also serves as the Vice President of the Skills USA club. Boxhill has won two Rookie Of The Year awards and also two Student Choice awards. Boxhill made silver academic recognition these past two years. He is also a McIntosh ambassador. Boxhill has been working at Chick-Fil-A for the past six months and serves as a team member there.
When Boxhill is not working or at school he enjoys playing video games or hanging out with his friends. He is very interested in politics and law. Boxhill is the last of his family to attend McIntosh High School, his sister Davian and Cousins Katrina and Chris have all attended McIntosh. One of his biggest goals in life is to be elected as a future President of the United States.
Maddie Hines, Multimedia
Madison Hines is a Junior at McIntosh and is serving her second year on staff as part of the Multimedia team.
In her freshman year, she was Vice President of her class. Hines is currently a McIntosh ambassador and has also done debate at the state level. Hines is interested in things like creative writing, film and law. In fact, from 2017-2019, she spent three weeks of each summer staying on campus at Emory University for this summer program called SIG (Summer Institute for the Gifted.) There she took classes like song writing, filming, working a camera, creative writing, things of that nature. At Emory, she was able to see what life would be like as a college student. She hopes to obtain some degree in law as well as journalism in the future.
During her free time, she likes to play volleyball, bake, watch movies, and spend time with friends and family. Because she is new on staff, she hopes to learn new things and new life skills such as responsibility, punctuality and reliability.