The website started with a freshman at Oakwood High School, Alex Zhang, who wanted to do something meaningful while being stuck at home during the pandemic. He had previous experience coding and then reached out to his fellow students for help
Zhang, 14, a freshman, and his fellow students have created coronavirusfighters.info.
“Assignments are handed out based on what people have requested to do and what roles are available. Most data on the website is pulled from external sources, but the news is still manually done,” Zhang said. “There are currently 13 students helping to publish the website.”
What Zhang likes about the project is that everyone is hardworking and supportive of one another.
“Everyone also gives each other suggestions on how to improve, regardless of role, which means that we can constantly improve,” he explained. “My main role is a front end developer, meaning I’m responsible for the coding, layout, and updating of the website. I’m very glad that people all across the world right now are using the website, contacting me, and giving me support and feedback. I didn’t expect the project to reach this scale.”
Junior Albert Choi, 17, receives news stories and acts as an editor, along with editing and compressing images, before sending it all to Zhang.
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“We have divided the news into different regions, and different members of the team conduct research on different regions,” he said. “These stories are then sent to the head of News and Research, which is then edited and the images are compressed and are finally sent to Alex, who codes the stories onto the website.”
Choi said he likes how the group has been able to acquire a lot of stories from different sources around the globe.
“This shows the readers the different biases that can come from each source and we do this to be the most transparent website that provides news about the coronavirus,” he said. “I was the first to volunteer when Alex asked for help and for about a week, it was just Alex and me. I found news stories and sent them to Alex, and I drew the logo and found images to incorporate into the website.”
Austin Choi, 15, is finishing his freshman year and is the director of marketing for the group. Like his brother, Albert, he feels the effort to be a reliable source for pandemic information is important.
“The news correspondents carefully choose news articles that are relevant and reliable in order to provide only the best information,” Austin said. “An essential part of this website is that everyone can make suggestions and it is really a team effort. What I really like about this project is that, even with the social distancing rules in place, this website allows the Oakwood students to collaborate and meet new people.”
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There are currently 13 Oakwood High School Students publishing coronavirusfighters.info. regarding the pandemic:
1) Alex Zhang Creator and Front-end Developer.
2) Albert Choi Head of Research and Head of Graphics.
3) Austin Choi Head of Marketing.
4) Sara Joly North America News Correspondent.
5) Will Cicora North America News Correspondent.
6) Liam Mccarty Europe News Correspondent.
7) Chloe Oh Europe News Correspondent.
8) Gabby Vish Asia News Correspondent.
9) Aiden Morris Asia News Correspondent.
10) Lillian Oehlers Africa and Oceania News Correspondent.
11) Zachary Josue Africa and Oceania Correspondent.
12) Jake Schairbaum South America News Correspondent.
13) Daniel Pierce South America News Correspondent.
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