Dear Montclarion,
To say The Montclarion shaped my career and the rest of my college life would be an understatement.
I came into college lost. I was a child advocacy and policy major with a minor in social work because I felt like I couldn’t be undecided. Not knowing what I wanted to do scared me more than going into something I may hate for the rest of my life.
Sophomore year the pandemic hit, and my whole life changed. I started getting into journalism and just overall being aware of myself and what I wanted. I took my first journalism class and fell in love.
I need to thank Professor Tara George for everything, basically. After class one day we had a talk about how I wanted to go forward and she recommended The Montclarion. I was about to be a junior and decided to take the risk, change my major and see what was going to happen from there.
Best decision I ever made.
From that point on I have been finding myself as a person, as a writer and most importantly as a journalist. If it wasn’t for Professor George pushing me in this direction and for The Montclarion teaching me so many things, who knows where I would be. Becoming an editor was very exciting for me because I got to give back to the paper what it gave to me.
Shout out to Jenna Sundel, who was the news editor at the time for helping me learn the way, being patient with a first time writer and watching me blossom.
Although I am not going into print journalism, The Montclarion will always be my roots as a journalist.
Thank you, Montclarion. Thank you for letting me take risks with my writing, write fun stories and make friends, but most of all find myself in a time I was scared of the future and lost. Thank you for fostering my creativity and fueling my passion for telling stories. As I go on and make my move to a new state to be a multimedia journalist, I will thank you every step of the way for bringing me to where I am.
Forever and always,
Erin
