Aurora Mena Barrios is a 18-year-old Senior at Colonia High School. Mena is taking Mrs. Allen's journalism class to write about fashion while improving her writing skills.  She enjoys modeling and talking about fashion. She took a year-long course at a modeling academy which helped her with her fashion knowledge. Mena spends her free time driving around or shopping. In the future, she plans on being a Speech and language pathologist . Mena loves listening to Rod Waves and went to his concert in November. She hopes to share her life experience and advice with her readers. Mena is a very straightforward person but loves giving others advice. She just hopes people can handle her honesty.

Mrs. Allen (formerly Simkovich) has been the advisor of The Declaration for 11 years and an English teacher at Colonia High for 18 years. She assisted in writing the curriculum for Intro to Journalism, Media Journalism and Broadcast Journalism which are all offered at Colonia High School. Allen also runs a Poetry Club at Colonia High and is the Costume Director for the school musicals. In 2009, Allen received her Master's Degree from Georgian Court University and has been an Adjunct Professor at Middlesex County College in the evening for the past 11 years.  In 2018, Allen was named Colonia High's Teacher of the Year. This year Allen is piloting a course at CHS that she created called Screenwriting and Video Production for students who want to work in the film industry or who want to make better YouTube videos. She is always looking for experts in the field of Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, radio, film and media to come speak to her classes so her students can learn first hand about the industry. If you are interested or someone you know is interested in possibly speaking to her class, please email Allen at the address below.  When she is not grading papers, tweeting for CHS, or working on the newspaper, Mrs. Allen likes to garden, sew, and make burlap wreaths She can be emailed at [email protected].