2018-2019 Staff
Sydney Cooper
Editor-in-Chief
Sydney Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief for the Hilltopper Newspaper at Highlands High School. Sydney is very excited to be a fourth-year journalism student and cannot wait to see what politically motivated and enticing stories ...
Emeline Kuether
Managing Editor - Hilltopper
Emeline Kuether is the managing editor of the Hilltopper online newspaper. She has been a contributing writer for the newspaper for the past 2 years. Her life revolves around words, whether they are in the hundreds of books on...
Steve Lang
Managing Editor - Yearbook
Stephen is a senior at Highlands High School and is in his fourth year in the Journalism department. Steve’s previous roles in the department was: Staff in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years and Design Editor in the 2017-1...
Kayla Wilson
Feature Editor
Writing has always been a part of Kayla Wilson’s life. While most kids were coloring with crayons in coloring books, she was scribbling lines in a spiral notebook with a number 2 pencil. Squiggly lines morphed into childish sen...
Maggie Schroeder
Sports Editor
This is Maggie’s second year in journalism. Her favorite parts of the class are designing yearbook spreads, attempting to take photos, and writing. Outside of school, one of her favorite things to do is run! She has run track...
Lexie Crawford
Photo Editor
Lexie is the photo editor for The Hilltopper newspaper and The Highlander yearbook. She has taken journalism since eighth grade, and is very excited to be in an editor position at such an early point in her career! She is hop...
John Whitlatch
Design Editor
John Whitlatch is a senior at Highlands High School this year. This is his fourth year of journalism and is the design editor for The Hilltopper online newspaper and Highlander yearbook this year. He first started writing short ...
Caitlyn Morgan
Editor
Caitlyn Morgan is currently a sophomore this year. This is her third year of Journalism and she is very excited to be an editor! Caitlyn enjoys doing most things high schoolers like constantly watching Netflix and hanging out with fr...
Jenna Brady
Editor
Jenna Brady is a junior at Highlands. She has always had a love of writing, even though some of her earlier pieces were very cringy and undeveloped. At a young age, she could be found writing short stories, but evidently giving u...
Gwen Culyer
Staff
Gwendolyn Culyer is a senior here at Highlands High School and has been in the district since Elementary School. Her passion for writing has continued to sprout over the years. She has gained appreciation for writing as it ...
Ella Exterkamp
Staff
Ella Exterkamp participates in not very many things at HHS because she thinks she is above Highschool which may be true. She used to do gymnastics for 15 years but has recently quit but now is teaching gymnastics classes because her ...
Emrel Woody
Staff
If Emrel had to pick one word to define her, that word would be creativity. Her mind is always racing with ideas. She always remembers her life being this way, with having ideas for characters for stories dancing in her head. Sh...
Kenzie Poynter
Staff
Kenzie is a Freshman at Highlands and she is very excited to be in Journalism this year. She is taking all advanced classes this year and is a part of a Start with 17, which is a developing high school club. She went to St. Ca...
McKenna Miller
Staff
McKenna Miller is a senior at Highlands High School. This is her first year in Journalism and has had a blast so far. She has taken graphic design/photography for the last 2 years at Highlands, so she is enjoying helping with...
Nick Caldwell
Staff
Nicholas Caldwell is a sophomore this year at Highlands High School. This being his first year in journalism he is eager to work on this year’s yearbook. He takes part in many events around the school mainly sticking to behin...
Tessa Killen
Staff
Tessa Killen is a sophomore on the Highlands High School journalism staff. She began writing in the 7th grade when introduced to the art of playwriting and directing. She took off with writing several adaptations of classic fairy ta...
Tristin Brubaker
Staff
Writing is something that Tristin, who is a junior, just started doing. She has tried hard this year to work on her writing skills with it being her first year in journalism. She has also started to understand how to write good...
Maddy Lyvers
Staff
Madison Lyvers is a senior at Highlands High school, she has been in journalism for three years now and really enjoys working in the yearbook and being able to connect with people in a fun and creative setting. Maddy Lyvers is 17 yea...
Sydney Fessler
Staff
Sydney Fessler is a 9th grade student who attends Highlands High School. When it comes to academics, she is always up for a challenge. As a freshman, she is taking all of the advanced courses which include Algebra II Adv, Pr...
Kaitlyn Kittle
Staff
Kaitlyn Kittle is a senior this year. This is her first year on the Journalism staff and is very excited to be a part of the program. Kaitlyn first got started writing outside of school essays when she was ten. She wrote poetry i...