Hailey Williford is a senior at RHS. She has been a part of the Smoke Signal staff for three years and can't wait to finish off her last year of high school in such a wonderful program. Williford is an honors/AP student who has played tennis for Ripon High for three years and was the 1st seed on JV her sophomore year. Williford is a volunteer photographer for the Ripon Farmers Market and a volunteer writer for the Ripon Magazine. In her free time, she listens to music, sings, writes, and reads. In the future, Williford plans to attend college and travel the world in hopes of learning new languages and teaching others. Williford's favorite quote is, "I don't know how I'll feel when I'm dead, but I don't want to regret the way I lived." She thinks living in the moment makes life more enjoyable and it's best to go forward in life with an open mind. You can always turn a situation around and see the positive side.

Valeria Martinez is a sophomore at Ripon High School. She is involved in cross country this  year. She is happy to be a part of the team this year and improve in running throughout the year. This is her first year in journalism and she is excited to get involved more with the Ripon High community and is ready to learn more about writing. She looks forward to spending the rest of her High School years exploring and learning more about herself and her interests. After High School she wants to go to college and study to become an immigration lawyer. She hopes to have fun and meet new people with this new experience in journalism.

Mikayla Dietrich is a freshman attending Ripon High School for the 24-25 school year. She is currently playing flag football for Ripon Highs team and is also playing travel softball. She plans to play softball for Ripon in the spring. This school year, Mikayla plans to take multiple high level classes while still sustaining a good grade point average. Mikaylas goals for this school year are to advance her writing skills and to be open to all activities available around the school. As the school year continues to move forward she hopes she can continue to build connections with her peers and to be open to people from all walks of life.