A new science and technology newspaper known as Res Novae, meaning “revolution” in Latin, was recently approved by Club Commission in mid-November as a club on campus. The publication was founded by juniors Royce Yang and Sandhya Kannan, who wish to make students more informed about current events in the world of science and technology. Despite the initial excitement of successfully getting their club application passed, Yang and Kannan are back to work. They must now begin putting together a balanced and skilled staff of editors, writers and photographers and figure out the logistics involved with consistently producing a publication.
El Estoque: When and how did you first get the idea to start Res Novae?
Sandhya Kannan: I’ve always wanted to start a science and technology magazine at school, and Royce and I have been friends for a few years so we thought it would be a good idea to do it together. Being a science and tech school, I found it strange that MVHS did not already have one.
Royce Yang: The idea definitely came from an interest in science that we both share.
EE: What do you hope to accomplish with Res Novae and how do you hope it will impact the MVHS community?
SK: We want to spread more hot issues and topics on campus regarding science and engineering so people can be informed about what is happening. We are naturally a STEM-heavy school and science plays a large part in our lives.
RY: We hope and expect Monta Vista students to react with interest because we live in the Silicon Valley and most people are interested, if not passionate, about technology.
EE: How are you planning to produce the paper?
SK: We plan on starting out with an online publication and already have a website set up. For now, until we get funds, there won’t be any physical distribution.
RY: We will most likely be producing it outside of school because we are a club, not a class, so short periods of lunch or tutorial won’t be enough for us to actually make the paper. Writers themselves will work in groups to produce pages.
EE: What kinds of skills are you looking for when choosing people to be a part of Res Novae?
SK: We have not finalized the staff yet, but we will talk about that more in our first meeting, where we will provide information on the positions available and how we plan on creating the staff. If it’s possible, we would like to be all inclusive and allow as many people as possible on staff.
RY: When it comes to choosing staff members, we generally want people who are skilled when it comes to writing, editing, photography or design. In addition to that, we are looking for people with leadership and teamwork skills that may lack the writing skills, but will still be able to contribute to Res Novae.
EE: What are some tangible goals that you have for the rest of this school year and the future?
SK: Right now, our first priority is to create a working staff that is comfortable with the journalistic process and can function smoothly.
RY: We hope to publish our first issue as soon as possible, whether that is online or in print. Hopefully, by the end of this school year, the production of the paper will almost be routine and will come naturally to the staff.
EE: Besides being focused on science and technology, what do you think makes Res Novae different from other publications on campus, such as La Pluma?
SK: We plan to take our information out of the scope of this school and find ways to get people to care about them. People at this school tend to look at the short term impacts of what is happening around the world and only seem to care about what directly affects them. We hope this magazine will bring them out of the little box that we live in.
RY: We also think that the science aspect of Res Novae will be more appealing to students who are interested in up-and-coming technologies that they were previously unaware of.
