I am the co editor of my community college newspaper. I fell into the job, I don't plan to become a reporter, but I am a hobby/borderline professional photographer and when I started back at school I took a photojournalism class. The professors had offered extra credit for shooting images for some stories that staff writers on the newspaper were working on. Never one to turn down extra credit I volunteered to take some photos for a story on the schools parking lot. Since the angle for the story was vandalism I arranged a ride along with one of the campus security officers. As I sat in the car shooting photos and chatting I took notes for my cutlines. The advisor for the paper told me that I had done better reporting for the cutlines than the writer had done for the article. Most of my cutline info was worked into the story and I got my first photo credit and byline. I wrote for the paper occasionally and shot photographs often. I became the photo editor and then as the most senior member of staff I became the co editor. I was hesitant to take on the role of editor since journalism is not my intended field, but agreed to share the role with an ambitious high school senior that loves copy editing and has big dreams in the field. Now that I am in my last semester in community college and on staff at the newspaper I am finally taking a media writing class to learn the ins and outs of reporting in various media outlets and the subtle nuances of AP style writing. True to the pattern that I have developed over the years I started in the middle and then went back to the beginning at the end.

Although I have been toying with creating a blog for awhile I never seemed to find the time. My school work, the paper, my children, husband, pets, housework, volunteer work, extended family... you get the point, has pushed the idea of a blog to the back of my mind over and over until it became an assignment for my media writing class. What a happy coincidence! I can test out the wonderful world of blogging without feeling like I am neglecting the things I should be doing. I love it when things work out!

I will showcase some of the work that I have done for the newspaper as well as work done for class. I will also be documenting frustrations I encounter while working of pieces, like the difficulty getting face time with key campus officials for a quote in "Governor Steps Into MnSCU Mess", as well as the fact that as soon as I finished the article it was already outdated and needed to be updated. [you can find the story under the pieces tab. You can also see examples of my work by clicking The Campus Eye tab]