The History of the Navigator and Where it is Now

by Tirzah Hopkins

Let’s take some time to learn about the history of the Navigator and its transitions to where it is today. The Navigator, as most people know, is the school newspaper. After talking to Savannah Laux, the current Editor-in-Chief, the history was uncovered. As far as we know, the Navigator is about thirteen years old. The last article on file is from 2006. It was an icon on the dashboard in FirstClass until the former Editor-in-Chief and the now-Student Council President Cody Johnson decided to make it a website on Wix. They felt like they needed to get it out there and seem more official so it wouldn’t just be another icon everyone ignored. When Savannah became Editor-in-Chief, she said she had big ideas for the Navigator and wanted to bring it to its full potential. Of course, she couldn’t do this alone, so she, Cody Johnson, and Mrs. Meyer collaborated, and eventually came up with the idea of turning it into a class. They did this so that students would be “held accountable, given credit, and receive recognition in an official way for their work.” Savannah says that without the class the Navigator probably would have stagnated. While the club-like way was great, there were just some things that couldn’t be achieved when relying on a group of volunteers.

The teacher advisor is April Meyer. She said that two of her former students contacted her about being the teacher advisor. They talked a lot about taking the Navigator to the next level. She says, “I wanted to be a part of the Navigator journey because I love encouraging students to pursue different creative avenues, and I wanted a place where we could show that we are a real school with real students and a real school newspaper.” Mrs. Meyer has been a great teacher, and it’s good to have a teacher we can contact because she knows a lot about what goes on in the school, she hears news from other teachers, and knows about upcoming events.

To wrap it up, the Navigator is now a class in NSA that is worth .5 credits. The people in charge are April Meyer and Savannah Laux, the current Editor-in-Chief. The class is an EVP class, with virtual meetings every other week.

The Navigator motto is Praestantia, which is Latin for excellence.

Tirzah Hopkins has been at NSA for about two years. She lives in Indiana, USA with eight of her eleven siblings and mom and dad. She has recently started writing for the Navigator. She enjoys spending time with family, hiking, karate, writing, and playing with babies.