Dear Cate Community, 

 

As your Editors-in-Chief for the 2025-2026 school year, we want to start by saying that we are honored to be included in the curation of Cate’s student-run newspaper. The world is evolving politically, culturally, and technologically every day, and as students, we are right in the thick of it. Our goal for this year is to make sure El Batidor is a space that keeps up, asks real questions, and gives all of us a place to reflect and respond with journalistic integrity, while simultaneously staying informed. 

 

One of the main changes we are implementing as editors is the website revamp because we believe that, as the media landscape is changing, our digital home for student reporting must advance with it. We hope El Bat can be a space where you can scroll through a captivating campus story one minute and gain a more complex understanding of how global issues influence our student body the next. 

 

At the same time, we are aware that AI is reshaping the way information is created, consumed, and trusted. Stories are circulating through campus often without context or credibility. This year, we want El Bat to continue committing to thoughtful reporting, strong writing, and honest and engaging content over inauthenticity. Our role is not to compete with the noise but to offer clarity and a voice that can be trusted. 

 

Cate is an international boarding school, which means our student body is automatically a resource that gives us access to a huge range of perspectives, backgrounds, and lived experiences. We’re dedicated to making sure El Bat reflects this unique group of people. Whether you’re writing from a place of deep personal identity, cultural insight, or just curiosity, your voice has a place here. We want to showcase what makes our community complex, layered, and real, with pride. 

 

We also want to push for even more representation in these pages. To make it more enticing to contribute, we’re launching a raffle system: every submission enters you into the raffle to win prizes, as an incentive for increased authorship. 

 

Another goal we have is to make one physical newspaper before we graduate, in hopes of increased visibility and more direct engagement. There is something powerful about sharing your voice on a public platform, but there’s something even more empowering about seeing your words printed in ink. 

 

Overall, there is a lot to look forward to in the coming months, and after a long summer, we are very excited to return to reading, editing, and engaging with a diverse range of articles. El Batidor is all about reflection, dialogue, and representing every aspect that makes Cate, Cate. 

 

Thank you to every editor, writer, reader, and faculty advisor who contributes to the paper in a variety of ways. Looking forward to a great year of writing and reading!

 

Warmly, 

Jasper Shelmerdine ‘26, Elise Tsai ‘26, and Lawrence Zhang ‘26