Team 18802 was formed in February 1998, shortly after head coach Cathy Bronsdon had attended a ThinkQuest workshop.  

The idea of making an international newspaper started to take form little by little in the following weeks. The ideas were easy to come up with, putting everything together was harder. Throughout the developing phase, the students communicated via e-mail and ICQ and shared ideas and comments. At times they were able to meet online for chat sessions on ICQ or in chatrooms, but the timezones made this difficult. E-mail was the team's no. 1 method of communication. 

The Global Gazette was made entirely in the students' spare time, though some of the stories and poems were done as school work. Thus the ThinkQuest competition required much self-dicipline and committment from the students. School, various exams and other obligations made working continuously on the project difficult. The Gazette work had to be put off for periods of time, especially during Spring 1998. Most of the work was done during the 1998 summer vacation. 

None of the student members have met in real life, only on the internet. 

Student team leader: Kjersti "Kiki" (17), Bergen, Norway  
I've lived in Norway all my life, but the schoolyear 1998-99 I'm going to the US as an exchange student. When you read this, I'm probably already there. Working on this website has helped me prepare for my trip in several ways; I've learned more about the American culture, and about my own. I think I'm a lot more prepared to answer questions about Norway and Europe after having written lots of Global Gazette articles! Apart from using computers/the Internet and making webpages, my interests are primarily reading, writing, music, painting and badminton. If you're up for a laugh, visit my homepage (link disabled)! 
 

 Nicola "Nicki" (15), Hong Kong and Germany 
My parents are German, but I have been living in Hong Kong for almost 15 years now, so that's why I chose to write most of my articles for our TQ website about the Chinese and Hong Kong cultures. Doing the research for my articles has definitely taught me more about my own home and culture, as well as other cultures. Living in Hong Kong, my family travels every summer, and I love learning about the countries we visit, so learning about Norway and the US was great! Other than that, this has allowed me to meet new people and get closer to the team member I knew already, Kiki. I love sports. The ones I like doing most in my free time are horseback riding and showjumping, basketball, swimming and soccer. Other hobbies of mine are movies, reading, music, surfing the net and working on my own webpages (link disabled). 

Alizabeth Anne "Ali" (14), Harleysville, PA, USA:  
While working on this website I have learned a lot about culture.  Before this website I knew almost nothing about Norway or Hong Kong.  It was very interesting to learn so many new things. The most difficult part about the website was writing the articles.  The American culture is so diverse that it was hard to include information about all of the various ethnic groups in our country. I enjoyed working with and getting to know Kiki and Niki.  I hope that I will get to meet them someday too!  
 I love to play almost all sports.  I play soccer and am on the swim team.  In my free time I like to enjoy other sports like basketball and cross country running.  Other than sports I love to watch movies and listen to music.  I haven’t made my own webpage yet, but as soon as I figure out how to, I think I’ll try.

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Kjersti (Kiki)
Nicola (Nicki)
Alizabeth (Ali)

...and one coach:  
Cathy Bronsdon 

How did we meet? 
Kiki got in touch with Nicki via the net in spring 1997. Later the same year, she found Cathy in Classroom Connect's teacher database. Cathy later introduced her to Ali. 

When the idea of making an intercultural site was brought up by Cathy, Kiki introduced Cathy and Ali to Nicki.