Humans of AFS: Miranda Shandell

After being shut down for 15 years, Abington Friend School’s student led newspaper, the Blue and White, is making its comeback. Thanks to the dedication of its editors-in-chief, Orla Maxcy ‘25 and Miranda Shandell ‘25, the Blue and White promises to be an amplifier for student voices within the school community. With the newspaper in the beginning of its second year of publication, Shandell sheds some light on reinstating the school’s student newspaper.

The following interview has been edited and condensed.

What first sparked your interest in journalism, or writing in general? 

The idea that something in your brain can be translated into words, and then someone else can read it is a really beautiful thing for me. Especially with speech and spoken word, there’s only one way to interpret it because you have diction or tone of voice. But in terms of writing, you’re putting it out there, and people are seeing it and making their own conclusions, which is a bit scary but also beautiful. 

What made you want to restart the Blue and White last year?

I have been at AFS since 2008, and I had never heard of a student newspaper. I think it was shut down the year I joined. In tenth grade, I started thinking about it one day, and I thought, “there’s nothing like this out there and I want there to be.” Orla was already co-clerking Creative Writing Club with me and it just so happened that Daniel Benjamin was coming next year and he had this expertise in newspapers. It was kind of a perfect storm of events. Because it had not existed, I felt this desire for something like a newspaper. 

What challenges have you faced?

Getting people to submit or make pitches is tough. I’m hopeful everyone feels safe enough to publish something, but it’s still a scary thing to put forward your words. I feel like there are some people who might feel nervous about that, so we are on the hunt for more submissions from more different types of people. Also we’re juniors and seniors; we have a lot going on. Scheduling has been the main difficulty in terms of when we have pitch meetings, make deadlines. It’s mostly the timeline that we are struggling with.

What is the importance of providing a platform specifically for student voices?

There’s this tendency to filter information to students through admin and teachers, and I think that’s important for some things. But in terms of student issues, I would trust information a lot more if I knew it was coming from other students. Teenagers have a million things to say and just because we’re younger doesn’t mean that what we have to say is less important. I believe that students had something to say whether it’s about school or about their passions or about activities.

How do you hope that the Blue and White impacts our community?

I hope that it adds a culture of students being listened to by each other. It’s a unifying thing where anyone can submit an article, anyone can take a picture that goes with an article. Anyone can edit, anyone can do any part of the newspaper. I’m hopeful that it brings people together with a common goal to tell stories.