Author Spotlight
The Harbinger Staff
Elizabeth McGranahan lived a truly inspirational life. She dedicated herself not only to learning, but also to teaching. Some of us will remember her as an editor on the Harbinger Online during its roughest period, others will look back on her passion and skill while debating. But regardless of how we knew Elizabeth we will always remember her perseverance and strength.
Over the past year Elizabeth has been fighting Aplastic Anemia and Dyskeratosis Congenita. Two extremely rare and deadly diseases, her only hope was a successful bone marrow transplant. These circumstances forced her to leave us at Shawnee Mission East to travel up to Minnesota for the treatment.
Elizabeth never gave up and even through the toughest situations she stood strong. During the darkest times of her life Elizabeth blogged of her day to day life, but she did more than tell stories, she reminded us to smile. Her inspirational blog “Reason to Smile” received numerous views and the passion of the public was left in comments to each post. Elizabeth led us through what she called her “successes, failures and obstacles,” but as each word sunk in I can say with all honesty that Elizabeth never failed.
After working with her for over a year I will be not be the first one to say she and I had disagreements, but as I look back on our work I know that out of every argument success emerged. I will always remember Elizabeth for creating one of the country’s most successful online publications. But more importantly I will always remember Elizabeth giving me a Reason to Smile.
Rest in peace Elizabeth.
We will all miss you,
Taylor Haviland and the Harbinger Online
Taylor Haviland was co-editor of the Harbinger Online with Elizabeth.
![For the first time in 10 years, East will have an all-female Student Council Executive Board for the 2024-25 school year.
The board consists of future senior and president Ingrid Blacketer, future junior and vice president Paige Bean, future junior and secretary Claire Polanco and future junior and treasurer Fina Kessler.
“We see each other once a week every week,” Blacketer said. “We set up together, we volunteer together and we volunteered at the can drive together. So we’ve always been in the same room [and] we’ve known each other for over a year now.”
To read more, click the link in bio.
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