My association with journalism began in ninth grade with an empty elective spot and nothing more or less than a whim ó a whim which has spent the last eight years blossoming into a career. Next year I’ll be moving to New York City to get my Masters of Science in Journalism at Columbia University.
By the time I was hunting for colleges I knew journalism was important to me, and while I was taking campus tours and reading between the lines in propaganda brochures, I was also picking up student newspapers ó looking at style, layout and the quality of the reporting.† Something drew me to the Voice. It’s masthead proclaimed it “A Student Publication Since 1883.” The pride and care that staff took in its work showed through, and I knew it was a paper I could be a part of.
Of course, I also made an instant mental laundry list of things that could be done better, and in the four years that followed, my fellow staff members and I improved the Voice in a hundred little ways, and more than a few big ones.
Four years later, I can honestly say that there is nothing I’ve accomplished at this college, up to and including my I.S., that I am more proud of than The Wooster Voice.† We live in a time where journalism is more important and less effective than it has ever been.† The cable news is something to be deciphered, the real news extracted from the debris. Longstanding newspapers are downsizing and shutting down every day, but here at this college, a small group of students works long hours for no pay because we believe in journalism. And though it may be lectures and scholarships a lot of the time, it isn’t always. We were there through the long night of police and students facing off at a snow-filled arch, to share the students’ side of the story. We were there when the College tried to spirit away the McGaw staircase over the summer, hoping no one would notice. We took President Cornwell to task on his salary in a public forum. It is a blessing that we seldom need to take the administration to task, but it’s a gift to have a paper that won’t hesitate to do so.
It has been the greatest pleasure of my college career to be a part of the magic that happens in this office, and to serve all of you in a quiet little way.† Don’t take this paper for granted.† Though all of us are still learning about the world and about journalism, the journalistic spirit is alive and vibrant here, and I hope it will be for many years to come.