Get to know our staff of writers at The Range! This week we are profiling the class of 2024.
Iker A.F. is a Mexican-American, born and raised in colorful Colorado, now ending his high school career by starting his senior year at MRHS. As a year-round varsity athlete, he’s got a
packed schedule from August to May and yet maintains a steady GPA and solid grades. Iker A.F., although not a strong writer or reader, still enjoys it and will get whatever work done
(sometimes late but late better than never). He thrives off talking to people and sharing quality time with them, especially his friends. Even through social media he never leaves people on delivered (you’ll find him on Snapchat, @geeker57 or Instagram, @geeker576). Apart from sports, school, and friends, Iker can be found playing whatever videogames he’s not bored of or
sleeping. He also spends a butt load of time grubbing on whatever he craves at the moment. This could be burgers, tacos, sandwiches, Chinese takeout, or even some pancakes.
Madi A. is a quiet teen who can typically be found with headphones in her ears and a book in her hands. She had Journalism down as a backup class if she didn’t get the ones she had wanted, so it was a shock for her when she saw her final schedule for her senior year. Madi has had a love of writing since the second grade when all her class did for three days was write (and illustrate with crayons) their own stories. Her mother still has the small collection of the books she wrote. She draws her creativity for both art and reading from the stories hidden within the pages of a book. From science fiction to dystopian wastelands, and from the lands of Middle Earth to a mansion in Texas. Madi’s writing is inspired by authors like Suzanne Collins, John Green, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes. She currently spends her afternoons after school at Tarver Elementary School where she meets the generations of the future, and helps them solve their seemingly easy problems. Although she may find some of her classes pointless and boring, she is using them to fly towards her future. Madi has been accepted into Coe College in Iowa with a scholarship that will pay for her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She knows that she wants to help kids who have struggled like her, and she wants to continue her passion for the written word.
Alex A is a passionate misunderstood person who aspires to be the greatest at his passions. He loves basketball and is a retired basketball player himself but is now pursuing the weight room more then ever in his life. His love for basketball started when he was young and his parents got him a plastic basketball hoop in his room where him and his dad would 1v1 when he was only
3/4 years old. Alex now loves lifting weights he’s doing all he can to gain more muscle naturally even taking natural supplements as well. Alex A can be a great story teller because he adds his own twist on everything and adds something extra to always add detail to his writing. Alex A also prefers to be different so his writing will always be unique to him because he believes in being 1 of 1 and being the only version of himself. Alex A prefers to keep his social media private but you can find him locally very easy.
Payton B. is a quiet teen who has moved around all her life. She didn’t expect to be in Journalism in her Senior year at Mountain Range High School. She is not one to have many accomplishments due to move a lot but she is proud that she has had the opportunity to have many different experiences in her life due to moving. She has lived in Huston TX, Katy TX, Navarre FL, Broomfield CO, and now Thornton CO. She went from living in a religious conservative area, to a place were every other person had dyed hair and where people were willing to support each other and their identity, to now living in a place where it's a mix of both of those. She is not much of a reader but she loves manga and comics. Her favorite stories being ones written by Eiichiro Oda, Hiro Mashima, and Stan Lee. In her free time she plays video games such as Minecraft and horror games (much to her dismay) with her friends. She also loves watching movies that isn’t horror with the only exception being the new Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. She is excited to have the opportunity to join Journalism and hopes that it will help her writing.
Bee C. is a normal student at Mountain Range High School struggling to maintain her straight A’s. Juggling her school life and work life. Trying to make time for friends and family, the typical teenager stuff. Her 8th grade creative writing teacher, Mrs. Katz inspired her to take Journalism her senior year. Bee has always loved writing stories, her first at age 8 was about the whimsical adventures of Sakura in Candyland. Growing up reading and watching romance novels and shows had influenced her, however her hardships from childhood had caused her to write more depressing, serious topics. Once out of school, she is found at her martial arts school called Peak Martial Arts. Training there since she was 6, that place was basically her second home. She’s supposed to deal with disciplined children with ultra sharp focus, but instead loud and crying children who make her stress levels go over the roof. If not there then she’ll be at her home lounging around, cleaning, or sleeping. She dislikes sleeping at night for some odd reason, so she’s fond of taking naps throughout the day. Lazing around and doing nothing is just what she enjoys. Sometimes once she gets motivated she will clean the whole house. She will continue this journey onward and possibly create amazing pieces.
Emi C. is a strong girl, who on the outside is a leader of her section and or a figure who people look up to, who is obsessed with bucket hats. On the inside, she is anti-social but opinionated. Writing has never been her strong suit and has always been a science nerd at heart and yet she ended up in Journalism as a senior at Mountain Range. Although science fiction with a spice of romance indulges new ideas and fantasies, she's also a student of music who loves band and everything it stands for. While you might find her on a field with the marching band, or practicing her clarinet she also loves to play video games and draw. Often, when she's not with her friends, she's playing games with others online or drawing art of anime or new things she's learning to draw. Writing isn’t her main strength, but she hopes to find comfort in doing it and becoming a better one while she's at it.
Aurelius G. is a senior at MRHS who is hoping to have fun and enjoy his final year in high school. After taking and passing AP Lang and the AP test, Aurelius G. is a strong writer and takes pride within what he writes. He is a very social person and loves to interact with others and can help carry the conversation between them. Aurelius enjoys writing, it doesn’t matter what it is about, once he starts to write about something he is passionate about he can’t stop. Striving to be a straight A student this year Aurelius wants to try his best and still have fun while maintaining good grades. During his free time he enjoys riding his skateboard and taking photographs, photography is something that he is very passionate about. Aurelius loves to watch sports, specifically basketball and he will be cheering on the Mustangs this year. He loves music specifically rappers like Juice WRLD and Trippie Redd and he loves shoes like the Nike Dunk.
Gracie H. is an average tired teen trying to finish out her senior year at Mountain Range High School. Though tired Gracie is an overall bubbly character with a loud and brash personality. She has always enjoyed writing, but she cherishes it more when she gets to write creatively. Sure she likes writing about her opinion, but Gracie loves sarcasm and twisting words into images and odd similes. She got a taste for writing at a young age, from reading all about adventure, or about mysteries, or just about anything that was slightly intriguing or unusual. Though she is a creative writer, she finds other ways to be artsy fartsy. If you take a look at her art you can feel the emotions she puts into each one. And if she isn’t writing, drawing, or sleeping you can find her with her friends and family (or eating). Gracie has a competitive nature, but at the end of the day she can be sympathetic while still stating her opinion. She lives at home with her younger brother, step-dad, mom, and her two dogs. Jackson and Chewy. Gracie’s goal for this year is simple…she wants to fully enjoy the senior experience and not stress herself out over school work. Take it easy, and enjoy her classes with her friends.
Adrian I.A. is a 17-year old senior at Mountain Range High School, who has lived in
Northglenn, Colorado for most of his life. Only living in Colorado his entire life, Adrian’s housing has bounced around between Northglenn, Thornton, Arvada, and Denver. As a senior, Adrian feels as if he needs to make this last year the best, not taking anything for granted. However, he is also excited to be released from school into the real world, already preparing to move in with his friends by the time he graduates. Entering high school during the height of the pandemic, Adrian never built a system to keep him productive, causing him to fall behind for his freshman year. Building off of that, he started his upward productive trajectory up during To stick to his “work hard,” he took three AP classes for his last year. The year prior, he took one AP and slacked off, but now he realizes the importance of his classes. He’s looking forward to staying on top of his work compared to previous years. Ever since the Denver residency, he has always appreciated night life, preferring any activity at night, especially when it’s too hot during the day. This love of the night brought him to one of his favorite modern philosophies: Work hard, play harder. He enjoys skateboarding, sleeping, and hanging out with his buddies, along with occasional sewing. All of these, funnily enough, are prominently done at night.
Nevaeh L is a quiet 17 year old girl who has been a cheerleader for 10 years. Nevaeh loves to read but doesn’t like to write, so she’s not very good at it. Nevaeh has been in school spelling bee’s three times, and scored top 3 every time. She decided to join journalism her senior year to try and improve her writing skills even though she doesn’t want to. Nevaeh has loved all things horror since she was 2 years old. She was the weird kid who only wanted to watch The Grudge and Nightmare on Elm Street as a toddler. When Nevaeh was 11 she read the entire 1,000 page ‘IT’ novel by Stephen King in a week. When she was younger she would only read horror stories and didn’t want to explore other genres until she read Harry Potter in her 6th grade Honors English class. Nevaeh wants to be an elementary school teacher, which is ironic because she
hates school almost with a passion. In her free time she’s either reading, hanging out with her
boyfriend, or dealing with crazy customers at Starbucks. Aside from all things horror, Nevaeh
loves to go to practice with the MRHS cheerleading team, trying to bake and cook, going out to eat, and blasting music in her headphones.
Rydon L. A reserved student at MRHS a student no one thought would be in journalism due to past grades and school work. The first novel he actually enjoyed was The Things They Carried because of digging you have to do to understand certain things. He has always loved horror and compelling stories, something that could move the reader. In his free time Rydon plays basketball, lifts, and has a job at King Soopers. There have been many setbacks in his life but in his eyes he is still winning in life doing the best he can for everyone
Jeleina P. is a senior at Mountain Range High School. She joined Journalism because it seemed interesting to her, even if writing was never her strong suit. She was always better at math. It came easy to her since she was a little girl. She hopes to graduate High School. She runs late no matter how hard she tries not to. She likes Painting and drawing even if she doesn’t do it as much as she used to. She loves the sound of the piano and how magical it sounds. In her Quinceañera ‘The Blue Danube’ by Johann Strauss II was the song for her waltz. Still ‘Winter Wind' by Chopin is her favorite piece. She listens to different genres of music like Latin, Pop, Rap and more. Jeleina has a fondness for concerts. This year so far she has gone to 5 and has one more to go to. Every Sunday she hangs out with her best friend. Usually they just hangout at each other's houses or just go do something random. She likes spending time with her family as well. Talking in the kitchen once everyone gets home from work about how it was a good or bad day. Even about random things going around us. When she sees her nephews and her little sister playing she remembers when she was a kid and how much time changes.
Conlin W is a native of New York City who has been living in Colorado since 2012. His favorite subjects include History and English. As a kid he spent hours under the dining room table hiding away from his family, reading about Abraham lincoln, George Washington, Davy Crockett, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar and other historical figures. In 6th grade he joined creative writing club in middle school to help his handwriting and writing skills improve, which they have not. He’ll never cheer louder then at Yankee Stadium and never shout at the tv more then when the Broncos are losing. He enjoys sailing on the coast of Connecticut, enjoying the beaches of Rhode Island and hiking the Rocky Mountains. Despite what most would seem like an active lifestyle, Conlin is in fact very lazy, spending long hours binging a show, endless scrolling on tik tok and Instagram and taking lengthy afternoon naps. He’s very active with his friends at the gym, exploring abandoned buildings or swimming in mountain lakes. And even more active with his girlfriend (and better half) of 2 years, who you’ll find with him at the movies, out to lunch, walking in the park, or binging another show. Follow Conlin on Instagram @colin.w and on snapchat @conilni.w.