Thirty-five students from Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monta Vista and other local high schools gathered in Room 805 on Jan. 9 with the shared interest of becoming part of the student-run BAY Magazine, which covers issues and trends that affect teens in the area.

The group listened to a 30-minute recruitment presentation by editor-in chief T.T. Tu about the magazine’s goals and sections in hopes of possibly becoming a staff member themselves.

This recruitment session welcomed anyone interested in journalism to join their staff. In order to make the first cut, applications were due the following Wednesday, and results were announced Thursday, despite the pressures of finals.

“We need to get started [with recruiting] because we will have people leaving for college,” said BAY Magazine’s editor-in-chief and Saratoga alumnus T.T. Tu, who now attends UC Berkeley. “This is like the preliminary to get people ready to take over.”

Students mostly heard about the session by word of mouth, friends on the staff and fliers.

“I just saw the Facebook invite,” said sophomore Kellie Chiou. “I’ve never really had an interest in journalism, but I want to try out new things.”

Twenty-three applicants were chosen in the preliminary round of recruiting. On Jan. 24, two weeks after the original recruiting session, there will be another round of cuts based on the work ethics of the new recruits. Despite the fact that nothing is set in stone, the staff is already working on their spring issue.

The publication’s slogan, “A magazine written by and for the Bay Area youth” has driven their search to find innovative teens from around the Bay Area to help preserve the magazine’s fresh style. Some other requirements included an interest in reaching out to the community and skills in inDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as, according to Tu, “all around nice people.”

“I’m looking for students who have an interest in journalism, a good background in it, and have a lot of time to commit to the publication,” said Tu.

The commitment level includes weekly meetings and about two hours of work done individually each week. In addition, students may also get to go to restaurants or points of interest to write reviews and take pictures.

Although they were looking for students of all talents, Tu said, “We are trying to help our Web and public relations sections since they are new, so hopefully a lot of people apply for those.”

BAY Magazine is planning another recruiting sessions this summer in order to continue to expand their group and get a fresh set of minds and ideas.

“Hopefully this will make BAY Magazine more popular. But if anything, we will have more students involved and the more the better,” said Tu.