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The Scholar’s Gazette

The Scholar’s Gazette is a student-led initiative, in sim-
ple terms, it’s a magazine that explores various themes
such as “Power and privacy”, “Maintaining mental
health”, and “Creating a more peaceful world”. Along
with these themes, the magazine also talks about var-
ious events occurring globally as well as in the school.
Every issue contains an interview which means that
students are given a platform to speak and be role mod-
els for their peers. It is indeed a platform for the stu-
dents, by the students.

A quote from the original proposal that got the ball
rolling in the first place states:

“This newsletter will not only focus on subjects but it
will also allow them [referring to students] to make
connections with other topics (which is the hallmark of
an IB Student), an example of this would be of Vincent
Van Gogh (whom we are currently learning about in
our English class), my way of putting this on the news-
letter would be to not just talk about him and his art but
it would also be about why he made the art in the first
place and this would not only make students inquire
but it will also allow them to become interested in their
topics. The newsletter will also allow students to be able
to express all of their pent-up emotions through pho-
tography, art, and writing, and this would not only al-
low them to work on these skills but also develop their
report card as well.”
discussing the effects of various social issues around
The first issue came out on July 11, 2020, under the ti- the globe to calling fellow peers to action and show-
tle “The Monthly Mailer” (Eventually changed to “The ing them how to help those less fortunate. From
Scholar’s Gazette”). It was a completely student-led ini- talking about anxiety and depression as well as dis-
tiative, the students were the writers as well as the art- cussing their effects, to talking about the relation-
ists everybody had a say as to what to do as well as who ship between privacy and power as well as the vari-
would do it. ous issues outlined by the “Pandora papers” and the
investigative journalists behind them.
The process itself is similar to that of any magazine (but
on a much smaller scale); the editor first creates a list The magazine is not only a student-led initiative, it
of ideas and paths to explore, these ideas are then con- represents the spirit of every IB learner, the urge to
veyed to the writers, who write the articles and then learn, and the grit to investigate and as mentioned
send it to the editor for compiling as well as editing. In above it is truly an initiative by the students, for the
simple terms, it’s a self-operating magazine. students. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Silence be-
comes cowardice when occasion demands speaking
However, the start of a new year also signaled a few out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”
changes, as the world was going through a global pan-
demic the newsletter began to shift from objectively By Sarthak Tallamraju (MYP 4)

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