As an aspiring journalist, The Pleiad has been far and away my most beneficial activity outside of the classroom. Beyond that, however, it has also been one of the most fun activities. Nothing can beat production night, when the staff of the paper clusters in The Pleiad office—page editors at their computers, writers around the first drafts of the paper looking for layout or other problems with the page—everyone determined to have the paper finalized before 4 AM.

The Pleiad is a weekly paper that is produced entirely by students, from pitching stories, writing them, editing them, creating the graphics or taking the photographs to go with the stories, and laying out the paper. In addition, we also work hard to finance as much of the paper independently as we can, through advertisement sales and subscriptions.

I have held three positions at the paper. First, I worked as a staff writer, a position similar to a freelance writer, where I covered stories on a variety of topics, but without assignments from an editor; then as a senior writer, where I covered stories for the news page, working specifically with the administration and student senate beat; and finally as one of two news editors, where I am writing about half of the content for the news page, in addition to editing the pieces that I do not write, taking photos for the stories, assigning stories to senior writers, and laying out the pages. The only reason I am not currently on staff is because I'm not on campus.

To see copies of the articles that I have published in The Pleiad, click here.

In 2007, my work on the paper was recognized with two Michigan Press Association awards. My article "Albion registering for Frustration 101" won first place in the investigative reporting at a Division II paper category. I also received second place in the column at a Division II paper category with my column "Cheney vs. Smith: What is news?"

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Last updated on March 07, 2008