Janessa Ulug, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Senior Janessa Uluğ is currently in her fourth year in journalism and second year as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Aquila. She began her journalism journey in eighth grade when she joined Freelancers Club in order to satisfy a craving to write political articles. Although her contributions to Aquila were confined to designing at the time, the tide changed when she was finally given the space and tools to report. Her freshman year, Uluğ wrote three in-depth articles on three hard-hitting topics—racial profiling in airports, the LGBTQ+ community and cell phone additiction—setting the tone for the rest of her high school career. Her favorite article thus far was published in Volume IX, Issue 1: “Not Your Mother’s Tongue.” In the 2,000-word piece, Uluğ enjoyed being able to talk to first-generation Americans about the role of language in cultural identity, personally connecting with the topic as a result of her Turkish heritage. In terms of leadership, Uluğ began as a Co-Editor-in-Chief her junior year; her focus this year is to gain confidence as a foreground leader. Looking ahead, Uluğ sees a career for herself as a civil rights lawyer in order to make an impact in overturning wrongful convictions. In college, her main objectives are to intern for the ACLU and other law-related non-profits in order to make a tangible impact. She is passionate about the Innocence Project in addition to the Black Lives Matter and Free Palestine movements as well as the topic of intersectional feminism. When Uluğ is not challenging institutions of power, she finds herself loving poke and milk tea. Her boba order is Jasmine green tea with salt foam and honeydew boba, and her poke order is spicy ahi tuna.
