Meet the Teen Editorial Board
Meet the Teen Editorial Board for 2022-2023
Our teen book project is developed entirely by a board of NEO teens. These teens work year round to produce the finished anthology.
Julia Pentasuglio
12th Grade | St. Vincent – St. Mary High School
Julia Pentasuglio is a 12th grader at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School, who is passionate about writing. Julia originally wrote in the Teen Writing book herself, but then she decided to take on the “behind the scenes” work by being a part of the editing team. This is Julia’s second year on the Teen Editors Board, and she has been published in Lake Erie Ink’s Teen Anthology twice. At St. Vincent – St. Mary High School, Julia has been named “Poet Laureate” for her outstanding writing. Her poems have also been published in Young Writers USA’s anthology, Empowered. Julia runs on her high school cross country and track team, a sport that has taught her the importance of patience, especially when working with the words and sentences in her writing and her poems. She also is a leader of her school’s social justice group, Platform, and participates in Mock Trial.
Christina Bencin
12th Grade | Hathaway Brown High School
Christina Bencin is a senior at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, OH. In her free time, she likes to play violin and ice hockey, experiment with new types of writing (specifically humor that isn’t all that funny and playwriting) and is a huge classical music nerd. Christina edits for her school literary magazine, Retrospect, as well as an outside literary project, BreakBread Literacy Project. This is her first year working as an editor at Lake Erie Ink, an anthology she chose to edit for to help elevate younger voices in the Cleveland area and to meet amazing writers in her area. Christina’s work has been recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, The Incandescent Review, Teen Ink, and Lake Erie Ink.
Emily Jarecke
11th Grade | Lakewood High School
Emily Jarecke is an 11th grade student at Lakewood High School. She participated in Lake Erie Ink’s 2022 spring anthology, Blur, and the 2022 summer anthology, Find Your Way. She’s currently a two-time author of YA and middle-grade directed novels.
Christine Kim
11th Grade | Hathaway Brown High School
Christine Kim is a junior at Hathaway Brown who has a variety of hobbies and activities she is involved in ranging from playing the flute in orchestra, golfing, volunteering at the Red Cross, working at a cancer research lab, to debating and chairing in MUN. She loves to travel around the globe and she’ll always take a sappy romance book or two to read. Christine likes reading a lot more than writing them, but she still tries to write a variety of genres one of her favorites being critical essays and drama and her least favorite being poetry because she lacks the prosiness even though she tries her best.
Jackie Lonsway
12th Grade | Mayfield High School
Jackie is thrilled to be on the editorial board for the second time this year. As a freshman she was the 9th grade winner of the Stop the Hate Essay contest and was selected for the JCU Young Writers Workshop last summer. She is a senior at Mayfield High School where she runs the Creative Writers Society and plays for the varsity golf team. After graduation Jackie plans to pursue English education.
Sofia Autero
11th Grade | Communion of Saints School
Sofia Autero is an eighth grade student at Communion of Saints School. She has had a passion for writing since she was a young girl, and hopes to continue this as she prepares for high school. Sofia loves to sing, act, and of course to write! She has won the Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Contest twice, and received honorable mention once. In addition, Sofia won the Regional Power of the Pen competition last year and competed in the State level competition. She has always been an avid participant in Lake Erie Ink programs, and first heard about the Teen Editorial Board when it was recommended to her by her school principal. She has really appreciated this fun and helpful writing experience thus far, and is very excited to continue in her first year on the Editorial Board.
