Wheeling Park High School is pleased to have a hard working athlete, dedicated scholar and kindhearted leader as not only the class of 2024’s student body president, but also as the Park Press’ very own Editor in Chief. This esteemed student happens to be Wheeling Park’s very own Lucy Aderholt.

As a fellow writer, as well as the Design Editor for the Paper, I have worked very closely with Lucy Aderholt for the past seven months. After many late night text conversations regarding the press, class periods spent perfecting the contents of our paper, and just truly just making many memories, I, as well as many others in Lucy’s life, have learnt a few crucial qualities regarding her. Such as her integrity in the way she walks, her truly impressive decision making skills, or even her effortless use of communication. In the midst of everything I’ve learned from Lucy, one trait stood out to me in particular: her relentless strive for greatness. The want for oneself to be great is a quality that students and teachers alike can agree on, but most lack the selfless quality of Aderholt- putting others greatness before your own. 

While the title of Editor in Chief seems to act as a literal meaning name, Aderholt’s position requires more than meets the eye. Not only has she managed to proofread and perfect dozens of staff written articles, but also produce nine extremely well written articles during her time as Editor in Chief.  One of these articles specifically managed to win the award of The Best of Sno. 

The Best of SNO award is an achievement that is given to articles which are handpicked from over 15,000 students across the nation by the staff of Student Journalism WordPress, SNO. Aderholt’s story entitled “The Penitentiary,” which was a part of our Fall series, Local Legends, was published on October 26, 2023. Not even a week later did she receive the nationally recognized award which landed her name and story a spot on the Official SNO Website.

“I was super excited to win that award and on my Penitentiary article because I definitely put a lot of work into it. It was a super interesting topic, and it was special to West Virginia. I thought that it was pretty cool that it won a Best of SNO because it’s kind of a local thing close to home. It’s a big deal around not just in Wheeling, but everywhere. 

When not perfecting an award winning article in class, Lucy never fails to carry out her job as Chief and help each staff member individually and as a whole.  

“So I run pitch day, which is where people give ideas for their stories. And then I also help out staff members with their interviews if they need help. Even if it’s as simple as talking to somebody or helping them with writing something or story ideas I can help them with that.” 

To all, Aderholt publicly acts as a hardworking leader and mentor to the majority of our staff, but Lucy never fails to continue her high achieving and selfless efforts behind the scenes.

“I go on SNO and just read everybody’s articles honestly and give feedback by filling out these little editing charts. I’ll just fix a little grammar, things like that. And then obviously Maliah [Miskiewicz] does so much design work, but I try to help on design when I can. Because the Press is you know, obviously a lot of pages. It’s a big project to do in a short amount of time,” said Aderholt.

With The Park Press producing over one hundred staff written articles and a total of ten print issues just in this school year, working on, as well as finalizing the official print edition truly is a big project for all involved, for creating a newspaper is no solo job. Our paper, as well as the other thousands of student-ran publications across the nation, are comprised of dozens stories. These stories are written and produced by our staff, then proofread by our editors for the last touch of perfection, and finally placed and designed into the print edition. While each writer, editor, or designer on each staff has their own individual tasks or goals, each of their moves are over seen and perfected by the Editor in Chief.  Lucy does not fall short of the previously stated.

“I read through every single word. Everything. Every single word thing of the press, typically after midnight. The morning before we print. I read through every single word because I physically can’t handle there being any mistakes in it. I’m a huge perfectionist,” said Aderholt.

When not going above and beyond for the Park Press, Lucy Aderholt is a eighteen-year-old student who has spent all four of her years at Wheeling Park playing soccer for our girls team, serving as the class of 2024’s Student Body President, as well as performing in two of the Park Players Spring Musicals.

While Aderholt has played soccer for her whole life, Lucy says that playing soccer for Park, “…was a great experience and that’s where I’ve met a lot of my closest friends. Some of my best high school memories are on the soccer team and going down state and just having fun overnight games and bus rides and things like that,” said Aderholt. 

Along with being a dedicated athlete, Aderholt has also been singing for the duration of her life. Even though singing is something that she has always enjoyed, she claims that despite the fact that she was originally aware of Park’s production of spring musicals, she never entirely considered joining them herself. That was until class of 2022 Graduate Stephanie Ebarb’s appearance as Elle Woods in Wheeling Park’s production of Legally Blonde.

“I remember being in the audience for Legally Blonde and seeing Stephanie [Ebarb] singing up there and I was like, oh, okay, I’m going to do this now,” said Aderholt. 

From there on out, Lucy Aderholt did in fact participate in two musicals, earning herself a supporting role as Mrs. George in Mean Girls the musical, and a leading role in this year’s musical, Mama Mia, as Donna. 

Lucy’s career in singing thankfully does not end here. While she has mainly sang for fun in shows such as Queen of Queens, or on her church C3’s Ministry Worship team, she now is looking to continue her talent into the world of work. 

“ I’ve been looking for gigs recently with my guitarist, Brett Hammon who accompanied me at Queen of Queens… places like Elle and Jack’s and other things like that,” said Aderholt in regards towards her hope to obtain a profession surrounding her passion of music.

“I’m going to Grove City College and I’m playing soccer. I’m gonna major in English, and I want to hopefully write for their paper there and get involved in a lot of activities up there,” says Aderholt in regards of her plans post Wheeling Park High School.

Considering Aderholt plans to major in English, she heavily enjoyed and excelled in English class here at Wheeling Park. With the help of English and AP teacher, Lucy was able to achieve the title of AP Scholar with Distinction.

“I’m an AP Scholar with distinction. And hopefully, if I pass research, then I’ll be an AP Capstone also. I’ve always taken all AP classes possible except for math. I like taking AP classes because I like to challenge myself and I think that I tend to learn more in AP classes and maybe other classes,” said Aderholt.

While your opinion of a person should never be predisposed, for Lucy, the opinion gathered by her own AP teacher, Mrs. Zumbrennen, turned out to be nothing but the truth. 

 “So I already knew Lucy’s older sister [Annalese Aderholt] because she had been in my AP Capstone class. After hearing so many good things, I was excited to meet her little sister.  She talked about her all the time,” said English teacher, Mrs. Zumbrennen. 

Being Aderholt’s AP Literature and AP Research teacher, the two have formed a close bond during their time shared together. 

“We also see each other a lot because she’s taking my AP research class independently, so I see her at different times in the day. When we talk, we’re able to have conversations about just things that aren’t scholastic,” said Zumbrennen.

Through many class periods spent learning literature, writing papers, or even just catching up, Mrs. Zumbrennen was able to establish her favorite quality of Aderholt.

“What I really like about her is her kindness. I just love how she is kind to other students. Just recently one of her friends was unable to go to prom with a date, so she went as far to organize getting someone to go with this person. She’s just always worried about other people and I really admire that,” said Zumbrennen.

Even in the midst of intense academic work both in and outside of school, Lucy still never fails to set time aside for the people she loves. Day, night or anywhere in between, she is always more than willing to act as a soft shoulder to fall on. Senior Lauren Erwin, who has been a close friend of Aderholt for multiple years can personally attest to this fact.

“She is the best friend a person could ever ask for. Like if i’m ever going through anything, she’s the first person that I call… She is just always there and not only for me, just like anyone in general. She’s just that person that people go to. She’s a great person and she’s always going to be there for not only me, but everybody around here,” said Erwin. 

Even if you have not had the pleasure of personally meeting Lucy Aderholt during her time here at Wheeling Park, please let this article at least teach you one thing: be the kind hearted, hard working mentor in someone’s life.

Considering I have deemed Lucy Aderholt to be a mentor and leader which I have constantly looked up to for over a year, I have very little advice to give her on her journey to the future success that she will achieve. But there is one thing I can say, please get some sleep. You deserve it. The Staff of the Wheeling Park Press is both pleased and distraught to give our final farewell to our 2023-2024 Editor in Chief, Lucy Aderholt.  I, as well as the entire staff of Park Press, hope that your future is filled with happiness, success, and many full nights of deserved rest.