Looking Back in Times 49 years of Service from the Trojan Times

Writer Shelby Seu Designer Isabella Makino

With

Mililani High School

celebrating 50 years of serving its community and youth, the year 2023 becomes a time for the school and its students to reflect upon their memories within its walls. While the school’s records of enrollment, classes, achievements and photos are ways that the community may be able to understand the school’s history in its entirety, certain memories lie in its students, specifically student-run organizations like the Trojan Times, which has been serving alongside MHS since 1974.

“It’s the voice of the students,” said class of 2009 graduate Caitlin Lum, who was also the 2008 - 2009 editor in chief. “And so, the school and the community kind of gets a snapshot of that time like the events that were happening and the issues that were coming up and interests of the students, and it’s being expressed by the students.”

Throughout its issues, a series of 8 per academic school year, the Times has been highlighting achievements, voices, and the events that define the Trojan Nation. The publication also allows its community and school to view MHS through the eyes of those that experience the environment and opportunities of the school every day.

The Evolution of the Times

With its 49 years of service, the Times has undergone many changes as it adapted to the ever changing Mililani community. For instance, the Trojan Times was a newspaper until the period between 2017 and 2021, where it changed into a magazine while rebranding as the Mililani

Times. The newspaper also experimented with its means of delivery by the implementation of their website, YouTube channel and social media account on Instagram.

“It feels like the Trojan Times experimented with a lot of new ideas the years I was on staff. I think that was when we started the Trojan Times website and began publishing our articles online simultaneously with the hard copy deliveries,” said class of 2010 graduate Cyrus Takashi, who is currently in his third year at the Indiana University School of Medicine and took on the role of the 2009 - 2010 assistant editor. “Back then we didn’t have a pre-built website template. It was all editing little tables and style sheets on Adobe Dreamweaver. We also played around with trying to film video content for big events but a lot of that was just messing around with the new video camera we got.”

Simultaneously, the growing popularity of the technology also allowed for the process of creation and distribution to become easier as well. With the original methods to produce a paper being more hands on, the publication has shifted into utilizing more modernized techniques. The Trojan Times currently mass produces its issues via Hawaii Hochi, a locally based Japanese publication and printing service that has been serving the Japanese community since 1912, yet for the earlier generations they did not have access to such luxury.

“Believe it or not, we used to print our stories and cut them. And we use something called wax. And we would actually have these physical layouts that we would have to cut and wax,” said MHS’s safety and security officer Kalani Takase, who is also a sports reporter for scoringlive.com, and was one of the sports writers for the Times. “That’s why we look back at some of the old Trojan times, you’ll notice the column sometimes might be a little bit crooked, or that and we would sometimes have to cut, like, into the sentences, you know, to make it fit on the next slide and all that it was, but by the end of my senior year, we’re starting to transition to digital digital designs.”

The Nitty Gritty of Layout Week

For every issue, the staff would utilize a period of 3 - 4 weeks to gather all materials necessary to produce a successful paper. Writers would first conduct meetings with a designated teacher or administrator to collect information about events or individuals they deemed to be “newsworthy.” Then, editors filtered through these suggestions to create the layout of stories for the issue. With the final line up, designers, writers and photographers received their assignments to complete for the following 1 - 2 weeks. Designers were provided stories that they had to prepare designs for, photographers needed to attend the event given or set up in-house photoshoots with their groups or individuals and writers were required to schedule, conduct and transcribe interviews to produce their story assignments by the set deadline. For the most part, the publications staff had access to numerous forms of technology like Google Docs, design softwares via Adobe, and digital cameras. However, for earlier years of the Times, especially Takase’s years, their technology was limited with physical recorders that needed to be purchased separately and the first generation Macs.

“It’s like, the colorful back and stuff was huge. And remember that we had names for each one. But at the time, they were like state of the art,” said Takase.

The final week of an issue’s production is known as layout week. Writers would have already taken their stories through the drafting process, which consists of three reviews done by the editors; designers would have prepared some of their design templates and photographers would have submitted and edited the photos of individuals, sports or school-hosted events. Once the foundational resources were solidified, designers would begin morphing all these aspects into one page that delivered the stories in a visually-appealing way. As designers began to finalize their pages, the staff would aid in the review process of these pages, using a printed copy and red pen to make any corrections. Designers would make the necessary changes the staff suggested and would then be able to submit the finalized page when their printed drafts came back ‘clean’ or without red markings. After the long hours of constant revisions, experimentation and communication, the publication would then be given the opportunity to upload and submit their entire newspaper layout for mass production.

However, with every layout week, the team had to be ready to brave the inevitable waves of challenges that accompanied it. For instance, there were times where proofing became difficult due the conflicting schedule of their diverse staff. Class of 2020 graduate Chloe Kitsu, who is currently studying at University of Hawaii West Oahu and assumed the role of the 2019 - 2020 editor in chief, expressed that due to the different students that were on the staff, such as athletes, thespians and musicians, staff members would have to leave during after school hours to attend clubs, which eventually lead to the absence of a portion of the team. Also, as the Times began to expand its reach to the community, it too brought on its own set of problems that were rather unique and interesting.

“We did a story on how like Airbnbs in Mililani, and apparently they weren’t legal. We got complaints, like, Principal Murphy got complaints about that story, because it went out in the community issue,” said Kitsu. “And I remember I had to actually call like, I don’t think like the tourism, tourism people. And I was like ‘is it legal to have Airbnbs in Hawaii’ and the person’s like ‘yeah, it is, as long as they have the right paperwork.’ So like, we always had to issue an apology for that. But it turned out to be all cool, you know, so it’s like certain things are good.”

Experiences and Memories

For a majority of the time, the publication had only distributed the issues to individuals within MHS. However, especially when the pandemic arose, the Times began to expand its audience towards the community, meaning it reached more readers. For Lum, there was something about struggling together that brought her closer to the staff around her, while for Kitsu, it was the ability to take in the view of the staff as a whole that aided in the construction of their friendship.

“Especially when we would have to distribute it to different people’s mailboxes, like seeing it go from just an idea on a whiteboard to an actual physical copy was something that always made me feel proud of not only myself, but like my staff as a whole,” said Kitsu. “And I think that’s one of my favorite things is that it was always bigger than just myself. That’s how I always saw it. It was never just one person writing but it was a collective group of people working to make one end goal all the time. And I think that’s something so unique.”

As staff members left, they took along with them the skills they’ve learned that could be used in future endeavors. For instance, Takashi was able to utilize the skills gained in softwares to write annual newsletters for the Indiana MD/PhD program, while Lum was able to utilize their refined skills in reading comprehension and writing towards accounting. However, rather than work ethics, some were able to take away the unique moments of opportunity they’ve gained with their time on the publication staff. For Takase, it was the ability to form a bond with John Kauinana, who was described as the not only a pioneer of student athletics at MHS, but of the school as a whole. Takase was also able to further excel himself into his future career as a sports reporter under the Honolulu Advertisers when he entered in the ‘Sports Writer for a Day’ competition run under the Honolulu Advertiser and sponsored by the NFL during the

Christopher Sato led the Trojan Times before retiring in 2022. He currently teaches Honors English 10 and Journalistic Writing and Publishing. He also is the advisor for the Good Dogs Club.

Hawaii Pro Bowl. It was his ability to become a finalist that introduced him and formed a connection to his current advisor, Curtis Murayama, who had saved his contact since Takase was 15 years old. As for Kitsu, it allowed her to connect with the student body around her, as it revealed the accomplishments and passions of her peers around her that she may not have realized before. Her time with the Mililani Times also pushed her to take on chances and gain the confidence needed to obtain leadership positions.

Whether it was simply eating together at the beginning of layout week to the countless after school hangouts, the Times was filled with many traditions that brought the staff closer together. For Lum, it was the memories of parenting — when an experienced staff member mentored a new one — that remained in their minds long after her years at the publication. For Kitsu, she loved the stress-relieving activities of hanging dinosaur coloring pages from the ceiling of the classroom and holding potlucks with both current and past staff. While for Takashi, it was the video games and movies he’d engage in with his fellow staff members before fulfilling their duties at homecoming. Faye Tanaka and Christopher Sato, previous advisors of the Trojan

Times, are cherished fondly by their staffers as each one expresses their gratitude for all that they’ve done as advisors. Takase expressed their appreciation for Tanaka for being the figure of support that propelled them so far into their career as a sports reporter both during and after their time with the Trojan Times. As for Lum, Takashi and Kitsu, they cherish their time under Sato, as he created a safe space for his staff members to connect with each other while doing simple mental check-ups and bringing food for his staffers to make sure they were supported.

“Like all families, we’re not all best friends,” said Kitsu. “You know, there are times when things got tense, you know, people get stressed and you don’t always see eye to eye, but that’s not what I think — that is part of a family environment where it’s like, it’s okay to, like, have disagreements, but you come together when we all need each other.”

To view previous issues and the hard work of the past MHS publication staff, please visit trojantimes.org and click on the archive tab.