There are so many amazing young people in our communities and I am so excited I get to introduce a few more soon.

It seems like the word is out that we love running contributed work from students. Just in the past week I spoke with two different Tahoma students who want to provide content for the paper on a regular basis.

And this week, we have the work of two other teens who were in the integrated academy programs last school year at Tahoma High. Both won awards for writing for Global Academy or Outdoor Academy. Students in both classes formed groups and produced zines. They developed themes. They pitched them to their classmates and sought submissions, primarily written work, then took the submissions, edited them and posted them. There were zines about travel, zombies and sports, to name a few.

In February I spent time with both groups of students. English teachers Matt Tucker and Jamie Vollrath — who left Tahoma over the summer unfortunately — asked me to come and speak to the kids about our planning and design process at the newspaper. I put together a presentation on Prezi and went through it on two different days, Feb. 14 and Feb. 15. It was a blast. I was also pretty impressed with what the kids were doing, the questions they asked after I was done with my talk as well as the follow-up emails I got.

If you didn’t know this about me, one of my favorite parts of the job is when I get to hang out with high school kids. Nothing about that feels like work.

I also love it when youth in the area approach me to submit their writing on their own. For some time Morgan Roberts of Maple Valley wrote about her experience with the Seattle Opera. Many readers love our youngest columnist, Annie Livengood, a Covington resident who is now a seventh grader at Mattson Middle School.

Soon we will have work from two other students and I am so excited about both of them.

A few weeks ago a young man named Alex emailed me to ask about contributing to the paper. We set up a meeting and I had no idea what to expect when he walked into the office.

Alek Link is a junior at Tahoma High. He will write about science and pretty soon we will run a column in which he introduces himself, however, I want to just tell you a little bit about him now and why I am thrilled about what he has to offer.

Link described himself as a math nerd. This year he is taking quite a few Advanced Placement courses, including two math classes, and is a member of BEAR Metal, Tahoma’s robotics team. He has a particular interest in astrophysics and particle accelerators. He also said he has plenty of ideas about what to cover in his columns so he is also clearly a self-starter. In our chat I found him to be highly intelligent, frankly way smarter than I am, but he has a writing style that will not confuse or alienate readers. Yes, he brought me a sample of his writing, which was also impressive. I am excited to have a voice in the paper which will expound the wonders of science.

Then Monday morning I received an email from a Tahoma Junior High ninth grader, Caitlyn Casper, who is interested in photography and writing. She wants to learn more about photography and journalism, she wrote.

“I am an honor roll student and many describe me as responsible, artistic, and creative,” Casper wrote. “A few months ago I moved to the Maple Valley-Renton area from Tampa, Florida. The community I came from is bigger and a lot less friendly. I was frequently bullied and did not feel proud of my school or community. When I moved here, it was clear that Maple Valley was very different from what I was used to. I quickly grew a strong school spirit and felt welcome in my new town.”

Casper added that while she was recently researching camera gear, she was encouraged to contact a local newspaper to submit photographs to, and she contacted our publisher who forwarded the email to me. She said she wants to send photos and short articles regularly about what’s going on at Tahoma Junior High.

I love this because I think this is a school where we do have a gap in coverage. We focus quite a bit on the high school. So, her voice and images will be a wonderful contribution to the conversation in this newspaper.

I feel like we’re doing something right when young people in our communities feel comfortable asking if their contributions are welcome in the pages of this newspaper. I’m proud of that. And I hope it continues.

If you want to contribute to the paper, let me know, and we can get that set up. Contact me at khill@covingtonreporter.com or 425-432-1209, ext. 5054. We are also on Facebook and Twitter, @cmvreporter or @cmvsports.