Mr. Schott,

Dude. I’m sure you’ve heard it a bazillion times, but Newspaper and you as my teacher have been the best part of high school. I feel like I’ve said it a million times to whoever brings it up, but your class has been incredible. Never have I felt such community in a single class. Never has a teacher given me such agency with my work and let me find my own ways to shine. My biggest regret of high school is literally that I only got to spend two years in your class. I bet there are infinite ways I could dote on your class and your teaching and guidance, and I bet you’ve heard quite a few of them. I think I’ll kick a dead horse, though, and let you know. I’ve grown as a person thanks to you and this class – I’d never jumped for leadership or the spotlight before I was an editor. Now I have a renewed confidence in my abilities that makes me so proud of what we do. Previously, I would just choose to avoid people I have a harder time working with. Now, I do all I can to embrace my differences with people and try to use our combined strengths to create the best outcome possible. Your class has been everything for me. A passion and devotion. A place where I am comfortable enough to let down my guard and be vulnerable with others. A community that has provided me with a lifetime of friends, skills, and belonging. I’ve never really thought confidence looked good on me, but I don’t hesitate to show off our hard work to everyone who will listen; it matters so so so much to me. Thanks to you and the Publications, I get to do something with my time at Central that matters. I never thought I’d be the type to find a niche in my community where I’d thrive like this. I always expected my high school years to just be a brief period in my life, to not take such an important place in my heart. But now, being in this community has given so much meaning to my time here. The friends I have thanks to your class are the ones I hope to hold onto for the rest of my life. The values of hard work and dedication to my passions that I’ve strengthened in your class are paramount to everything I do. Your support has been foundational to all this. Everyone can tell how much you love all of your students, how your passion drives you to help us be the best we can be, to care, and to try as hard as we can. I can only imagine how many times you’ve gotten the title of “favorite teacher” from your students, and it is completely deserved. It’s so unbelievably corny, but Publications really is a second family to me. To move on from it soon will be one of the hardest parts of starting my adult life because it has been so near and dear to my heart. When I get homesick, my parents won’t be the only thing I miss. Schott, thank you so much for being a part of the best thing I got to do these last four years. I am so incredibly grateful for what I got to be a part of here. I could never thank you enough for being my teacher, for making such a wonderful space where I could grow and thrive. Thank you, Mr. Schott.

-Thomas