Tag Archives: newspaper

I don’t remember the last time I was this busy…

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This is been one of the busiest weeks of my life in recent memory. (I know I’ve had weeks just as busy if not more so, but I try to suppress those details!)

I’ve spent the past week laying out a 12-page print issue of the McDaniel Free Press to commemorate the graduating class of 2013. It’s been a lot of work, and being doing it pretty much on my own, because I have the right combination of skills and available time for the job.

I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of my personal and even academic life this week to work on such a big project, but there have been some advantages to it. I’ve known how to use the basics of InDesign, the program we use to do layout, since the end of my junior year of high school, but I now have a better grasp on InDesign than I’ve ever had before. And yes, this is relevant. A lot of places that want to hire English majors for jobs and internships want the people they’re hiring to have familiarity with Photoshop, Illustrator, and/or InDesign, so having the skills that I have is a great addition to my resume.

So if you have any interest in getting a career with an English major immediately after taking college, I strongly advice you to get a feel for these programs. Courses like Editing and Desktop Publishing offered at McDaniel can help you learn them, but some practical experience is also useful. It’s also difficult to get into this class until your junior year, so if you do come to McDaniel and you want to learn these skills, come join the art staff of the Free Press! You’ll get some practical knowledge, and with enough people participating, no one person has to take on the entire layout by herself!

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Free Press event

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On Tuesday night the Free Press, our student newspaper, held a recruitment event complete with hot chocolate and s’mores. The goal was to talk to some new people about writing for us and to get ideas for upcoming stories. The event was right before our regular meeting time, so we even gained a few new faces and maybe some new content!

Besides talking about our organization, visitors were able to participate in helping us develop “McDaniel’s Choice,” a new project we are launching in order to showcase the best businesses in the area and our favorite things about McDaniel. We had created categories like “Best Pizza Place” and “Favorite Themed Night in Glar” and let fellow students write in ideas for contenders in each category. We’ll take this data and it narrow it down so that a few options are in each category. Finally, we’ll pick a winner by letting students vote on a survey that we’ll send via email. I’ll post more about McDaniel’s Choice as the semester goes on.

For me, the best part of the night was the chance to chat with some current and prospective writers about story ideas and what they would like to see in the Free Press. Events like these that drag me from my regular routine remind me how many cool people are on campus and how many ideas are circulating among us. The Free Press allows us to be collectively creative and expressive while also providing useful information to the campus. Though I’ve been involved with our newspaper throughout my three years at McDaniel, our event reminded me of the necessary function the Free Press performs on campus and how much potential and power there is in writing for a newspaper.

Interested in checking out our website? Look no further: http://www.mcdanielfreepress.com/

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A Busy Little Week

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Returning to campus from fall break means a return to friends and now-familiar routines. Unfortunately, it also means returning to a fresh batch of homework assignments (and ones put on hold during break). One look at my workload tonight, and you’ll be able to tell two things: that I’m an English major and that I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment. Tomorrow I have my first test of the semester for my grammar class, and I have a paper due in my rhetoric class. (Fortunately, the paper deadline got pushed back by a day, giving me more time to work on it. Unfortunately, that means I’m still working on it.)

Of course, I haven’t let the homework bog me down completely, as I kept busy with plenty of non-homework things yesterday too. After class, I went to West Middle School, a local middle school within walking distance from campus, where I volunteer once a week as an after-school tutor for kids who want or need extra help with their homework. I’ve been involved in this since last fall, and I have not only enjoyed it but I have also learned a lot about myself and working with people who are younger than me.

Later in the evening, I went to Honors Around the World, an event sponsored by the Honors Club at which students of the Honors Program talked about their experiences studying abroad. It was great to hear about some of my friends’ and peers’ travels to Costa Rica, Budapest, Spain, Ghana, and other places. I was especially glad to hear Mara talk about her experience in Glasgow, Scotland, since I would like to study abroad there in 2014. McDaniel’s Honors Program is part of a special partnership with the University of Glasgow that lets honors students from select U.S. institutions study at Glasgow. I think it’s a pretty awesome opportunity, and I can’t wait to experience it myself next spring!

And before I hit the books last night, I helped the Free Press, our student newspaper, distribute copies of our latest print issue in my residence hall. Our print issues have been looking fantastic this year, and I highly recommend that you track a copy down if you visit campus. Whether you’re interested in journalism or not, looking at colleges’ student newspapers is a great way to learn more about the campus and find out what students care about.

The October issue of the McDaniel Free Press, featuring McDaniel ROTC cadets

Despite being only three days long, this week has been one of my busiest little weeks in recent memory. (The fact that we don’t get a lot of short weeks on campus can also account for that.) I’m definitely looking forward to this week coming to a close! After my grammar test, I’m heading home again to take care of things I didn’t get to over fall break and to spend more time with my family. (Fall break will never be long enough for me!)

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A New Website

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I have just accomplished my favorite task since joining the McDaniel Free Press four years ago. I am the editor in chief this year, and previously I was the web editor, so the website has been my priority for so long. This morning we re-launched our site after months of planning and redesigning and I am overjoyed!

We believe it achieves the goals of being highly functional, aesthetically pleasing, and socially interactive. One completely new aspect of the site is the creation of FP2, pronounced FP Squared. This link brings you to our very own social media aggregator. It is there that you can find news from all campus and local sources, as well as from Twitter. Through the use of the hashtag #FP2, relevant news and content from student sources around campus can also be displayed on that page, including links and photos.

Hopefully this will get more of the McDaniel community involved in the site. I am still riding an adrenaline rush and I think that it’s the only thing helping me to catch up on all the homework I neglected as we were preparing the site.

Mcdanielfreepress.com! Check it out for a great glimpse of campus life!

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