Sanvi Challa is a senior this year and in her second year with The Blaze. As editor-in-chief, she leads the staff to ensure everything runs smoothly and edits all articles to be publication-ready. In her first year on The Blaze, she won five Best of SNO awards and the grand prize for her Halo Vape Sensor feature article at the Loudoun Now Excellence i...

Samantha Chang is a senior, and this is her fourth year on The Blaze. As the managing editor, her job is to oversee the new staffers and to make sure they can be the best journalists they can be. Sam is looking forward to writing stories about the community and recording podcasts about politics. Sam hopes to win journalism awards for her writing and fini...

Arnav Mahajan is a junior and is heading into his third year writing with The Blaze. Last year he was the arts & entertainment editor, but this year he is the lead copy editor. He intends to write and follow live Rock Ridge Sports, community news, and any other topics he finds intriguing. Arnav follows the New York Jets of the NFL and the Los Ang...

Sophia Dabre is a sophomore this year and starting her second year of journalism at The Blaze as the arts and entertainment editor. In her free time, she likes to go on walks with her friends and listen to her favorite music artist, Drake. She loves watching movies, her favorites including Harry Potter and rom-coms. She plans on joining debate, DECA, ...

Gavin Fortuno is a senior in high school this year and a skilled graphic designer/artist at The Blaze. He’s originally from Fairfax County and grew up in Ashburn. He hopes to hone his skills to further pursue his graphic design career in college. He has dreams of going to Greece, likes playing basketball with his friends, and enjoys making art. His goal...

Saketh Nandam is a junior this year, and he is the website coordinator for The Blaze. He’s looking forward to continuing his passion for writing as well as podcasting for the newspaper. Saketh also has interests in the computer science field; this led to him joining the AI club and TSA. He’s also won multiple awards for robotics, including the Cre...

Dhruv Singh is a sophomore and a new staffer for The Blaze. When free, Dhruv spends his time reading largely dystopian books, playing soccer, and researching new business ideas. This year, he is looking forward to improving his photography and interviewing skills with sports and feature writing, as well as expanding his entrepreneurial skills through ...

Noah Wilkins is a freshman this year and a new staff writer for the Blaze. He joined the newspaper because of his passion for writing along with photography. Noah is starting off the year with sports, and he is currently on the lacrosse and hockey teams, which he has been playing since a very young age. Next year, he is planning to join the golf te...

Aakash Vivek is a freshman and a new staff member at The Blaze. When he is not working for The Blaze, he is interested in being part of the basketball program here at Rock Ridge. Aakash was also elected as the secretary for the 9th grade SCA. When he was young, he never wrote and disliked having to write in school, but as he got older, he really star...

Madelyn Tucker is a freshman and a new staffer for The Blaze this year. She has a passion for photography and is interested in multimedia journalism and gaining exposure to podcasting and video journalism. Madelyn is also extremely family-oriented and actually developed her passion for photography through her time with her grandmother. This year, she...

Tyla Simpson is a freshman and a first-year staff writer for the Blaze. Tyla’s motivation to write for the Blaze began with her striving to improve in writing and finding her own voice. She has a piqued interest in event-based coverage and photography, with her primary goal of capturing the energy of Rock Ridge’s student life. Outside of the Bl...

Zach Miller is a freshman this year, entering his first year on The Blaze. As a freshman, Zach enjoys the freedom and independence high school gives him. His love for writing stories and making podcasts guided his path to newspaper. The Blaze appealed to Zach, since journalism was a new opportunity filled with different fields to explore. Additionally...

Megan Marr is a junior and a new staff writer on the Blaze. A VA native and theater lover, Megan was recommended by her English teacher, Scott Schwarz, to the program, where she hopes to cover as many arts and entertainment events as possible, with her dream job being an arts and entertainment reporter. Apart from the newspaper, she is a part of Roc...

Kaushal Kalluri is a junior and a new journalist for The Blaze. His experience with writing and his beliefs in free press led him to join the newspaper, and he has enjoyed the class immensely thus far. For The Blaze, he is ecstatic to start taking photos and videos, along with getting started with podcasts. As for article making, he plans on getting inv...

Devika Goureddy is a freshman this year, starting her first year as a new staff writer on The Blaze. She is excited to get comfortable with the camera and explore her interest in photography through taking many photos in event coverage, especially sports games. To diversify her skills, Devika wants to take on other forms of journalism, such as creating...

Sophomore Lucinda Eskandar is a second-year staff writer on the Blaze. She joined journalism again this year because she enjoys the collaborative aspect as well as the freedom to write about what she likes. Her favorite stories to write are opinion and A&E, because she enjoys voicing her opinion. This year, she plans to join a public speaking extra...

Sriram Chiripurapu is a sophomore this year at Rock Ridge High School. He joined The Blaze this year, as he was interested in helping minorities have a voice, and that led him to journalism. He enjoys cooking and making fruit syrups for drinks. He wants to try his hand at investigative pieces and features, focusing on the truth and people’s talent...

Arjun Chand is a junior here at Rock Ridge, and this is his first year being part of the newspaper staff. He joined the newspaper staff this year in part because his sister, Diya Chand, was in the newspaper program. She helped inspire Arjun to take journalism as an elective and to talk about the issues affecting the school and community. Arjun’s goals ...

Tanvi Challa is a freshman this year and a new staff writer for the Blaze. She joined the staff this year because she believes journalism is a way of keeping people informed, and she wanted to take a class she would enjoy. This year, she wants to work on her writing as well as photography skills in order to try to win awards and become a better writ...

Josiah Anderson is a junior and a new staff member of The Blaze. After receiving a recommendation letter to join the newspaper, he was immediately interested in contributing. His goals for this year are writing pieces people will actually enjoy and be interested in reading because he feels people his age don’t read enough anymore. Originally from...

Aj Aluko-Apata, a sophomore this year, is a new staff writer for The Blaze. Despite not having any previous journalism-related experience, he joined due to his knack for writing. Interested in sports like basketball and football, he hopes to write opinionated sports articles about his favorite sports teams: the Washington Wizards, Manchester United, and...

Jasmin Ahmed is a junior and in her first year at  The Blaze. While she grew up in New York, her family is actually from Bangladesh, and she grew up around multiple cultures. Her interest in The Blaze sprouted after she volunteered at the Rise To summit for women earlier this year. Her experience with writing comes from her love of reading and a...

Mariia Pecherkina is a junior this year and is the multimedia editor at The Blaze. Her second year on staff, Mariia enjoys editing videos, gathering interviews, and the entire multimedia aspect of journalism. Being able to represent overlooked perspectives and bringing them to the forefront of discussion is Mariia’s favorite part of journalism. Sh...

Divitha Mathe, a junior this year, is the opinion editor. Divitha has worked in The Blaze since her sophomore year. Her initial interest in The Blaze stems from her love of writing and reading; this has led her to continue on into journalism in college. Outside of The Blaze, you can find Divitha either in Model United Nations or dancing in the Bollywood D...

Zahra Hameed is a sophomore and the photography editor of the Blaze. With a passion for politics, writing, and photography, she loves using journalism as an outlet to connect with people and share their stories. Zahra’s favorite part of the journalistic process is interviewing new people and capturing photos that bring her articles to life, especiall...

Lia Davis is a junior this year and is a second-year staffer. She enjoys keeping things in order as a business and social media manager for The Blaze. Outside of managing, she likes to do articles about event-based coverage and opinion pieces. She is also looking forward to collaborating with other staffers. Her goal for journalism this year is to ...

Rachel Bhardwaj is a junior and a third-year staff member. She currently serves as the co-multimedia editor of The Blaze. She enjoys sketching, drawing, and exploring DIY projects. As co-multimedia editor, she is excited to capture broad reactions through her videos and hopes to create more in the future. She has also lived in India for most of her ...