The Student News Site of Mentor High School

Cardinal Nation

Cardinal Nation

Cardinal Nation

Welcome to Cardinal Nation!

This is the Mentor High School online newspaper for the student body – written by and for students.
Welcome+to+Cardinal+Nation%21

Most high schools across the United States have a student newspaper. For years, Mentor High School has as well.

As early as the 1960s, there was a student newspaper called The Mentor High School Log (check out our “From the Archives” section to see many of their original stories from!) In the 1990s, Mentor High School had an award-winning student newspaper called The Inkwell. Check out their last online edition:

The Inkwell

When I became the advisor in the fall of 2021, it seemed that The Inkwell was due for a change in branding. (After all – as we were going strictly online, there no longer aren’t even any ink wells involved!) Over several meetings with the only holdover from the old Inkwell staff, junior Evie Megery and I came up with Cardinal Nation. This new title seems to appropriately embrace what a Mentor High School online newspaper should be – a place where current, future, and past Mentor High School students can all congregate together online and make the hashtag #onceacard a reality.

Cardinal Nation (Produced by Mrs. Ford’s GenYes team.)

But even though this online newspaper is viewable by anyone in the world by virtue of being on the internet, this publication is primarily for the students. Cardinal Nation has a small full-time staff, but they are dedicated and have worked hard to create a new site with the support of the administration of the Mentor Public Schools, especially Principal Jason Crowe and Superintendent William Porter and now Craig Heath. We look forward to our continued growth.

But we would like to hear from you, the student body. What do you have to say? Does your sport or activity fail to generate the type of coverage as other groups? Is there a student or member of the Mentor community that has a story to tell? Do you wish to be a comic strip artist? See a great movie and want to write a review? Love that new album and want to write about it to a larger audience? Have questions about our school that need answered and want to use the “power of the press” to get them as a student journalist? Have a hidden talent that you want to share? Interested in photography? Videography? Want to try a podcast? Then be a Cardinal Nation contributor!

What are you waiting for?

E-mail us at mhs_cardinalnation@mentorschools.org, Follow us onX @CardinalN8ion or on Instagram @cardinaln8ion

You can also download an app for Cardinal Nation directly on to your phone! Just search “Student News Source” in the App store on your phone and you can get notifications anytime a new story is posted!

See you online 🙂

Mr. Steve Couch

Cardinal Nation Advisor

Twitter: @MrCouchMHS

More to Discover
About the Contributor
Mr. Steve Couch
Mr. Steve Couch, Advisor
Mr. Couch is a 1988 graduate of Mentor High School and has been a the advisor of the Cardinal Nation online student newspaper for Mentor High School since its inception in 2022. He has been a member of the Social Studies Department since 1997 and is the long-time advisor for the highly-decorated Mentor Model U.N. team, which has participated in international conferences from Chicago to Cleveland to Washington, D.C. In 2008 he was awarded the Northeast Ohio Education Association Positive Image Award and the Phyllis Layton Perry International Teacher of the Year by the National Council for International Visitors. He was named the 2022 Teacher of the Year by the George E. Hayward Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 9295 and the surrounding district. Outside of the social studies, Mr. Couch has significant interests in theatre. He has been a free-lance columnist for the News-Herald since 2003 where he writes the Young Thespians column. He has been the director of Wildwood Theatre Camp since 1995 where he has written numerous original productions. Check out his podcast "Two Fools Trying to Make a Musical" on all platforms to see what he's working on now! Mr. Couch directed the Memorial Middle School Musical from 2009-2020 and is currently the director for Madison Theatre at the high school and middle school level. He has appeared in numerous productions at Lake Erie College, Rabbit Run Theatre, Dobama Theatre, and the Fine Arts Association in Willoughby. Mr. Couch was proudly inducted as a charter member to the Mentor Theatre Hall of Fame. He lives in Madison with his wife Melissa and his daughters Mallory, Casey, Olivia, and Ella.