Grace Sharma, Editor-in-Chief
Writing for tjTODAY since freshman year, Grace Sharma has worked on the magazine and website as a staff writer, copy editor, and Online Editor, and now Editor-in-Chief. She loves everything humanities and STEM, specifically reading about dragons and murder and learning why our brains work the way they do. This year in Journalism, Grace hopes to explore her writing skills and provide a new light through which to view students’ stories.
![On Friday, April 12, Jefferson’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Parent Teacher Student Association’s (PTSA) Diversity Committee hosted an Eid-Al-Fitr celebration after school. “I think especially at TJ I have to emphasize [the community] because I feel like at other schools there’s less of an open mind. There’s this environment of Muslim students as well, and so here it’s so calming and kind,” sophomore Palatin Shaaker said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0420-1200x783.jpg)
![Gesturing towards their project, senior Alec Riso describes the mechanisms of the group’s QKD system alongside senior Karthik Thyagarajan. “This laser generates a stream of photons. We lined it up with a collimated lens, [which] focuses the laser into an optical fiber,” senior Connor Whiting said. “The optical fibers [preserve or maintain] are how you measure the polarization state of the photon, which lets us do the encryption protocol.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_0867-e1715793225721-900x1200.jpeg)
![During a dance to a mashup of “Wannabe” and “Vogue,” junior Mandy Huang, bottom middle, lifts her hands at the end, striking a pose with the other junior dancers. “At first, [MEX] was stressful because practices went by so quickly and it felt like I would never be able to memorize the choreography, but the choreographers were amazing,” Huang said. “When we were about halfway to Homecoming, turnout to practices was so low that one of our choreographers brought bomb pops to try and lure people back into MEX.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_3858-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Freshmen Anna Park and Xavier Reyes work together to program an arduino component in Design and Technology. The Naviance class rank hack threatens to disrupt part of the collaborative nature of the school. “There is a reason why FCPS [Fairfax County Public Schools] schools stopped using class rank previously,” assistant principal Cynthia Hawkins said. “There's a danger in comparison and a danger in ranking.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_9938-900x600.jpg)
![At the start of this school year, principal Dr. Ann Bonitatibus collected containers filled with slips of paper. Staff members wrote their beliefs and hopes relating to innovation at Jefferson. “Everybody [is] coming out of COVID with some energy again, and we want to start getting our neurons firing about what's new, what's exciting,” Dr. Bonitatibus said. “To me, innovation is next. Every week I'm planting seeds with their own ideas, not mine.”](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/lighting-in-a-bottle-picture.png)
![Kai Bilal performs during the sophomores' MEX dance despite struggles with boys building interest and participation. "The initial demo seemed kind of hard," sophomore Zeerak Yusufi said. "It was fast paced and the [guys] just lost interest. There were no friend groups, either—it was just random people who decided to come to MEX, so there was no hype. We [didn't] generate enough interest."](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IMG_2427-900x600.jpg)
