2018-2019 Staff
Ina Barashka
Online Co-Editor-in-Chief
Ina Barashka is a senior at DGS and an Online Co-Editor-in-Chief. Throughout her high school career, she has been involved in multiple clubs and teams including speech team, track and field, Spanish club, and is in a dance program outside of school. She is also fluent in Bulgarian, English and Spani...
Paul Szmanda
Online Co-Editor-in-Chief
Paul Szmanda is a junior at DGS and an Online Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Blueprint. This is his first year on the official Blueprint staff, but he has freelanced for the publication for the past two years. Szmanda is also a varsity member on the DGS Speech Team, the Secretary of Politics Club, and...
Trevor Owcarz
Online News Editor
Trevor Owcarz is a senior at DGS and is the Online News Editor for the Blueprint. He loves sports and plays golf on the DGS team in the fall. While maintaining his passion for sports, Owcarz is involved in Unified, Mad Dash and Blue Crew. Owcarz plans on attending college in the future, although he doe...
Sarah Barber
Online Opinions Editor
Sarah Barber is a junior at DGS and the Online Opinions Editor for Blueprint. She is a member of the DGS speech team, which she joined her sophomore year and has loved ever since. Barber is also involved in Mad Dash, Mustang Way, Operation Snowball, freshman play and Masque and Gavel at DGS. Outside of sc...
Natalia Ruiz
Online Features Editor
Natalia Ruiz is a senior at DGS and is the Online Features Editor. Over the years, Ruiz has been a Mad Dash Leader and a part of the Key Club. During her senior year, she hopes to get involved in more clubs such as the yearbook club and super fans. When Ruiz is not busy with school and work, she enjoys hanging o...
Natalie Casas
Online Entertainment Editor
Natalie Casas is a senior at DGS and is the Online Entertainment Editor for the Blueprint. She has been a member for the past two years and hopes to end with a bang! In past years, she had been on the Speech Team, Masque & Gavel, Swim Team and Radio Club. With the experiences with public speaking,...
Miles Little
Online Sports Editor
Miles Little is a senior at DGS and is the Online Sports Editor. This is Miles’s first year on the DGS Blueprint staff. Miles is also on the DGS lacrosse team and plays competitively outside of school for East Ave. Little plans on continuing his lacrosse career in college. For fun Little loves to eat food. His favori...
Jacob Casella
Social Media Director
Jacob Casella is a junior at DGS and is the Social Media Director for the Blueprint. He has been a member of the speech team at DGS since his freshman year. Casella competed at the IHSA State Final in speech his sophomore year. He is also a member of the Madrigal Singers at DGS; part of the drama club,...
Andrea Davenport
Print Co-Editor-in-Chief
Andrea Davenport is a senior at DGS and is the Print Co-Editor-in-Chief. This is her second year as a member of the DGS Blueprint staff; however, she was a freelance writer for the paper her sophomore year and the Print Opinions Editor her junior year. As the Print Opinions Editor her first year on the...
Srushti Desai
Print Co-Editor-in-Chief
Srushti Desai is a senior at DGS and one of the Co-Editor-in-Chiefs for Blueprint. She enjoys playing sports such as badminton and soccer. Desai has been on the DGS badminton team since her freshman year, and wants to play this year in hopes of having a full circle high-school experience. Desai enjoys spe...
Tatum Mitchell
Print News Editor
Tatum Mitchell is a junior at DGS and the Print News Editor for the Blueprint. Mitchell loves theater, music and riding horses competitively. She has participated in choir since freshman year and has been in multiple DGS productions. Mitchell is involved in a variety of clubs at DGS including JKB (an ...
Colin Dodd
Print Opinions Editor
Colin Dodd is a junior at DGS and is the Print Opinions Editor for the Blueprint. This is Dodd’s first year on Blueprint, but he was a club member his sophomore year. Dodd has competed in multiple creative writing contests and has one short story published. At DGS, he is involved in German Club and ...
Emmanuelle Copeland
Print Features Editor
Emmanuelle Copeland is a senior at DGS. Over the past four years, she has been committed to both the arts and sciences. Copeland is the vice-president of her school’s masque and gavel. Copeland is also the head of the hair/makeup/costume crew for productions done at DGS. Although she is dedicated to the ...
Rachel Ley
Print Entertainment Editor
Rachel Ley is a junior at DGS and the Print Entertainment Editor for Blueprint. She is heavily involved in the music program at DGS and can most commonly be found roaming the music wing or in a practice room. Rachel Ley is a longtime honors English student and has a strong passion for reading and writin...
Phillip Pakowski
Print Sports Editor
Phillip Pakowski is a senior at DGS and is the Print Sports Editor for the Blueprint. He loves sports and has been playing lacrosse since his sophomore year and has played on varsity since his junior year. He is also involved in clubs and activities such as Unified Special Olympics, Snowball and JKB. ...
Rhaya Truman
Managing Editor
Rhaya Truman is a senior at DGS and is the Managing Editor for the Blueprint. She has participated in basketball and dance in her DGS years and is currently a member of the Speech team. She is involved in many organizations, for example, Kpop club, Peer Tutors, Speech, Mustang Way Leaders and the Com...
Becca Pritchett
Head Copy Editor
Becca Pritchett is a senior at DGS and the Head Copy Editor for the Blueprint. She is on the varsity cheerleading team and has been since her sophomore year. She loves helping others and is involved in many activities in her school and community, some of which include: Snowball, Mad Dash, Peer Led Li...
Alex Miranda
Copy Editor
Alex Miranda is a sophomore at DGS and a copy editor for the Blueprint. As a freshman, he participated in Key Club and Student Council. Miranda also received recognition awards from the World Languages, Social Studies, and English Departments for demonstrating strong leadership, superior attitude, and outstand...
Ariel Oh
Copy Editor
Ariel Oh is a sophomore at DGS and a Copy Editor for the Blueprint. She is a multi-sport athlete, participating in cheerleading and softball at DGS. She also plays for the Downers Grove Outlaws softball team. Oh is involved with different activities such as Superfans, ACE and Maddash. She hopes to ...
Jacqueline Sumida
Copy Editor
Jacqueline Sumida is a junior and Copy Editor for the Blueprint. At DGS, Sumida is a member of the varsity speech team, Acapella Choir, Treble Ensemble and drama club. Outside of school, Sumida spends time working part-time at Goodwill as a sales floor associate as well as doing homework, playing...
Sam Perkins
Photo Editor
Sam Perkins is a senior at DGS and is the Photo Editor for the newspaper. In her freetime she loves taking photos and has been involved with photography at DGS since she was a freshman. Perkins has competed in multiple photography contests within the last few years and has won most of her awards at S...
Vianney Mendoza
Business Manager
Vianney Mendoza is a junior at DGS and is the Business Manager for Blueprint. At DGS she has been involved in French Club, in Superfans, and in gymnastics as a team manager. In her free time, Mendoza enjoys hanging out with friends and driving while listening to the most recent pop music. She also e...
Kelly Jankowski
Video News Director
Kelly Jankowski is a senior at DGS and is the Video News Director. She was involved with the Blueprint club last year, but is excited to be working with the full team for the first time. With no previous journalistic writing experience, Jankowski is ready to learn what it takes to become a journalist...
Kari Alore
Adviser
Kari Alore teaches English I, English II and Journalistic Expression and Media Literacy at DGS. She also co-advises the Blueprint. She has her undergraduate degree from Elmhurst College, where she majored in English. She started her teaching career in 2008 at DGS and has since gone back to school...
Mark Indreika
Adviser
Mark Indreika graduated from DGS in 1984, he attended Northern Illinois University where he studied Journalism and English Education. He continued with post-graduate work at Northern earning a masters degree in English and American Literature in 1995. He began teaching at DGS in the fall of 1996. For...
Mary Long
Adviser
Mary Long teaches English III, Journalistic Expression and Advanced Journalistic Writing at DGS. She also advises the Blueprint. She has her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa, where she triple majored in Journalism, English and Art. After graduating from the University of Iowa, she got ...