Mia Dove
Mia Dove is the Editor-In-Chief of The Buzz and the 2026 Maryland Student Journalist of The Year. She has been around The Buzz since her sophomore year, and she started publishing articles last year where she was also the Editor-In-Chief. Dove has written primarily sports-themed articles for The Buzz, starting with just sports she participated in, such as softball, but later expanding to other major professional sports and Damascus sports, some of which she knew nothing about going in. Dove said her favorite articles she wrote were her profile she did on our athletic director, Mr. Tyler Tunnell, and her profile on DHS softball coach Mr. Mike Warfield. She said her biggest piece of advice to underclassmen is to “stay on top of your work, get things done, but don’t stress it too much,” and that “high school is a very small period of your life, and your success in high school doesn’t define you.” After she graduates, Dove will be attending Syracuse University in New York on a Sports Communication track, where she can focus specifically on learning sports journalism techniques and interviewing players and coaches. When asked what draws her to writing, Dove explained that she loves being creative and having a platform to give a voice to herself as well as people who may not speak up for themselves, such as Mr. Tunnell. Dove said her favorite memory at Damascus is winning the softball state championship her freshman year, and she also has enjoyed getting to attend high school at the same time as her sister, Ellie Dove, who is a freshman this year.
Isabelle Strouble
Isabelle Strouble is the Sports Editor for The Buzz who has primarily focused on sports ever since she joined The Buzz her junior year. She used to focus specifically on college football, but this year expanded to covering the Damascus football team as well as county recaps of other sports at Damascus. She also wrote a couple of non-sports articles this year, and she said she “enjoyed getting out of [her] comfort zone.” One of those articles, the staff superlatives article that she wrote about her colleagues on The Buzz, she said was one of her favorites because she enjoyed getting to learn about her classmates, and she also enjoyed covering the Big Ten Championship game in January of this year. Strouble’s biggest advice to underclassmen is to not worry about what other people think about you and be willing to go out of your comfort zone. She said she likes writing because she enjoys telling stories, especially for people who might not have the voice to tell their own. Her favorite part about being on The Buzz has been becoming friends with the other people in the class, and becoming especially close with Mia and Sarah D. After she graduates, she will attend Penn State for journalism and media relating to football, where she has the potential to have an internship with the football team. Strouble says her favorite part of being at Damascus was being a part of The Buzz, since it gave her “a good sense of community” after initially not growing up in the area with other Damascus students.
Sarah DeStefano
Sarah DeStefano is a senior, first year member of The Buzz, and the Assistant Sports Editor for The Buzz, where she mainly covered sports, including the boys’ basketball team, and she also wrote about the school’s parking lot. Some other articles she wrote have been about coaches, horseback riding, and the school’s parking lot. Out of all the articles, Sarah says she had two favorite articles she wrote about, the two are the parking article and the end-of-the-season basketball article. She liked writing these articles the most because being able to see the different options and setups for other school parking structures helps her realize we should be more grateful for the parking system we have at Damascus. She also enjoyed writing about her brother being on the basketball team because she gets to see him and write about him succeeding throughout the year. Sarah says her time here at DHS has been eventful; there are many memories, good and bad, that happened while she’s been here. Out of all, Sarah says her favorite memory was when she would stay in the greenhouse, where she would take it all in. It helps her remain calm and gives her time to relax without having to stress about many things. Sarah claims that if she had the option to go back to one of the four years here, she would choose junior year. That year was the year she got to find her footing and figure out what she really wanted to do. Her advice to the underclassmen is to “find something you’re passionate about, you feel like you’re just trying to check boxes off, but if you find something you’re passionate about, you will have fun and have a better experience.” Sarah Destefano will be going to West Virginia University where she will be doing sports management, she will also be getting her majors and bachelors in four years.
Aaron Koch
Aaron Koch is a staff writer for The Buzz. This is his second year writing for The Buzz. He writes mainly for both entertainment and sports. His favorite article is his “Continental Classic 2025” since he enjoyed writing it. However, his favorite article content-wise is “What you need to know about the bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery” because it took a lot of research and was pretty recent. One of his favorite memories at Damascus High was when he first started an interview show during his sophomore year where he had entire groups meetups to build the foundation for the show. One piece of advice he wants to give to the underclassmen is to be prepared for the years outside of high school. Next year, he will be going to Syracuse University and will be majoring in broadcast journalism. The most challenging story that he covered was the “The Buzz staff picks: favorite horror movies” since he had to gather information from every staff member.
Sarah Nachbar
Sarah Nachbar is a news writer and the AP Style Editor for the Buzz. She has mainly written school- and community-related articles, including co-writing the DHS homecoming article, the story of Jimmy Cone, the 2026 spring sport coaches article, and many others. She explained that her favorite article to write was her “Seasonal history: Christmas poinsettias” article. “I really like plants … I’m part of the FFA Chapter [here] at Damascus, so being able to talk about plants is just really nerdy and really great for me.” Nachbar revealed that her favorite high school memory was making her first friend… “I would not be able to imagine my entire high school career without them… Really, it’s just a lot of friend-based stuff.” Looking back at her experience, Nachbar encourages underclassmen not to let high school bog you down… “If you see people doing a lot, they’re probably stressed out and don’t try to spread yourself so thin to do those things.” She plans to go to RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in New York… she says she feels that she won’t enjoy it there as much, and said if she could not get through it, she’ll come back home and apply to Johns Hopkins. She stated that she changed a lot since freshman year, though she doesn’t know if it’s good or bad yet, but she grew later on during sophomore and senior year, and one valuable lesson she learned was that everyone makes mistakes. “You can tell people everyone makes mistakes, but you don’t really understand it until you live that … Yes, everyone makes mistakes, and yes, we’re all doing our best, and you shouldn’t hold anyone so critically to that.”
Mara Kuroda
Mara Kuroda is the Entertainment Editor and the Assistant Editor-in-Chief for The Buzz. Her articles deal with politics but mainly writes for the entertainment section. She has written about the DHS school plays, SNL skits and more. Her favorite topic to write about is SNL skits and her favorite article that she has written is her Kennedy Center Article because it combines her love for entertainment and politics. Kuroda recollected that her favorite DHS memory was being backstage in theater, “[I enjoyed] doing the energy circle… you basically meditate for a little bit and it just really brings us [together] as a community … we all come from different places but at the moment we’re one.” One piece of advice Kuroda has for underclassmen is to “start connecting with your teachers junior year… ‘cause at the end of the year you’ll have to ask them for letters of recommendation.” She stated that the best way to do so is to find a common interest and ask them early. She will be attending St. Mary’s College of Maryland with her major in history and her minor in political science. “I’ve grown in confidence… I wanted to be an actor when I was here [in freshman year] and then I switched drastically to become a lawyer,” she stated when asked if she thinks she changed since freshman year. “Mr. Dow last year helped me and also helped me a lot with college applications… he taught me that life has no re-takes… and at the time I hated it, but now I understand what he was saying.”
