Behind the Scenes: The Lawrence

For 144 years, The Lawrence has captured the voice of the Lawrenceville community, chronicling its stories, debates, and ideas with the works of many talented writers. But, what happens before the stacks of newspapers are issued every week? To uncover the answer, we can step through the glass door of The Lawrence office, where sixteen editors work together to polish this weekly newspaper.

Most writers of the Lawrence are familiar with their section editors, but the role of the Editor-in-Chief seems distant. Aki Li ’25, Editor-In-Chief of the 144th Board describes her role as “making sure everything goes seamlessly.” Li spends six to seven hours every week in the office, where she adds final edits and compiles articles, making sure that no overly risque content is included. On Fridays after classes, she also spends around an hour managing board meetings, where the Board discusses the editorial for the upcoming week. “It's just as much organization and communication as actual editing,” said Li. Indeed, managing board meetings, and communicating with The Lawrence's advisor are all crucial facets of her job as the Editor-in-Chief. 

On the first page of each issue, the News section of The Lawrence is where the action begins—where Sophie Cheng ’25 and Charles Potter ’25 turn raw campus happenings into polished stories that set the tone of the entire paper. “[Potter] handles the weekly emails and assignments, and I take on the editing,” Cheng states. “He lays out the first page on Adobe InDesign, while I design the fourth.” It’s a delicate balancing act, blending teamwork and individual effort to ensure the biggest headlines hit the presses each week. 

Opinions Editors Sabrina Ottaway ’25 and Arya Vishwakarma ’25 manage one of the paper’s most dynamic and challenging sections. For Vishwakarma, the mission is clear: “The issues Lawrentians care about are what we should publish, not the issues [Ottaway] and I care about.” Central to this mission is to bring fresh voices into the fold. “New writers are the lifeblood of our section,” she stresses, “without them, we can’t truly reflect the diversity of thought in our community.” Despite their best efforts to attract contributors, Vishwakarma admits that most articles come from a small, consistent group of writers. While their work is high quality, she sees this as a problem, as “it prevents us from actually showing what a wide group of Lawrentians think.” Vishwakarma is eager to change this, encouraging those who have never considered writing for The Lawrence to give it a try. “We’ll literally publish anything, as long as it’s a genuine opinion,” she emphasizes, highlighting the openness and inclusivity of the section. 

Photo Editor Nicole Halucka ’26 is responsible for gathering the pictures for the entire issue every week. Though editing is rarely part of her job, Halucka sends out weekly photo assignments with specific descriptions of the desired photos. “I usually have all my photos ready before office time, but sitting in the office with the other editors and enjoying our feed after all our work is done—that’s certainly a highlight of my week.”

Nearly all members of the board agreed that editing and discussing during office hours is one of the most rewarding parts. “We always get fun visitors in the office, especially on late Thursday nights. Blake Eldridge ’96, H ’78, ’12, P’25, Emilie Kosoff H’88 ’96 ’00 ’18 ’20 S’88 P’19 and even 

Stephen Murray H’54 ’55 ’63 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21 have visited to chat about what we're doing,” Vishwakarma describes. “The Board itself is pretty talkative and opinionated too, and we have a running ‘Quote Board’ document.” Vishwakarma further recalled: “This past fall was when Eldridge’s other dog Gunner, much larger than Larrie, was let off his leash and ran into the office to surprise us. I screamed. Everyone screamed. Shoutout Gunner.”

 “I had Chick-fil-A for the first time at the Lawrence,” Li mentioned when asked about her favorite moment working in the office. “Cameos from friends of editors are always interesting. We really do love having people around, so I would like it if more writers, or those interested, just came by during office hours,” Li added.