As my time at Misericordia comes to end, I have found myself reflecting on my tenure here. I have analyzed my performance as a student, my growth as a person and my legacy as Editor-in-Chief of The Highlander. My personal and professional growth in the last two years has been nothing short of remarkable, and I certainly owe much of that to my professors and mentors in the classroom, but I also owe a significant amount of credit to my time with this newspaper. I highly recommend and firmly encourage anyone reading this to consider working with The Highlander or Cougar Radio during your tenure at this university.

Before I started at Misericordia, I was lacking confidence and any kind of tangible portfolio-worthy work. I am leaving more confident than ever before, and with a plethora of writing clips from The Highlander and my internship with the Scranton Times-Tribune. Without that experience, I would be relying on my coursework, my GPA, and my sub-par previous work experience to forge a career. But I made the brilliant, but expensive, decision to pursue my degree in my 30s.

Being a soon-to-be graduate who has been in the working world for about 15 years, I can confirm that employers care far more about internships, student media participation, and any work experience you may have than they do about your course work or GPA. The truth is, unless you are in a highly competitive field, applying for a prestigious job, or are looking to go to get into law or medical school, most employers care little about your GPA. Grading can be subjective. A variety of well written articles for a student newspaper, a podcast or a live show on student radio look far better to most employers than that A you got.

You don’t have to be a mass communications English major to join student media. Students of all majors, and experience levels, are welcome. The Highlander desperately needs more writers, but if writing isn’t your thing, photography and social media is also an option, and work in those areas will produce artifacts to add to your portfolio.

The Highlander will add an official new social media manager position in the fall. We have tried to beef up our social media presence this spring with the plan of growing it in the coming years. The more staffers we have, the more content we can produce, and the more content we produce, the bigger our presence on social media will become. On- camera interviewers, videographers, video editors, photographers and even social media coordinators to help the social media manager execute the plan are needed. Social media work with The Highlander would add meaningful  real-world experience to the resumes of marketing and business majors.

If you are interested in joining as a writer, photographer, or as a member of the social media team, please contact Faculty Advisor Melissa Sgroi ([email protected]), soon to be new Editor-in-Chief Allyson Stroup ([email protected]), or our new Social Media Manager Penelope Gomlak ([email protected]).

It has truly been a pleasure to serve as your Editor-in-Chief. I believe the newspaper has done some quality work over my year and half tenure as EIC, and I hope the students, faculty, and staff of this great university agree. I owe most of the success to my incredible staff. I will miss the weekly meetings, the fun times and laughter.  I will most certainly miss the guidance of my amazing faculty advisor. I will also miss the supportive and family-like environment this university has to offer. However, two things I will not miss about college are final exams and lab science classes. All good things must come to an end, but endings also lead to new beginnings.

I hope my ending with The Highlander will be your new beginning.