Leadership
My role as Editor-in-Chief requires me to be an active leader in my journalism classes and after school at deadlines due to my responsibility for over 80 staff writers and editors. During class, I generally make announcements to the group of students regarding deadline schedules, story ideas, and other opportunities to help out. After this, our classes are generally structured so that staffers have time to work on their stories. I answer questions throughout the hour to give suggestions when people are struggling in addition to editing copy and page designs.
After school, I help page editors in addition to reorganizing the issue when conflicts arise. I generally keep track of all of the logistics–the pre-plan, editorial, page assignments, copy, and food schedule–and make sure to delegate tasks when necessary. I also make time to work on my own stories and designs at deadline.
I also hold weekly Editorial Board meetings where we discuss the editorial and go over the progress of the issue. I have been an active member of Editorial Board throughout my three years on staff as an editor. I have written around five or six editorials total, which are representative of our team’s view on a newsworthy issue.
Other opportunities I’ve taken advantage of include running a Back to School Night presentation for all of the newspaper parents, going to middle school classes to recruit, and organizing a table at the open house (see Entrepreneurship for more information).
Besides these traditional duties, I have added a few of my own organizational strategies this year. I create weekly point spreadsheets so that staffers know how many points their story received in addition to helping redesign our grading system as a whole. Now, everybody on staff must meet a greater variety of requirements in order to gain a wider scope of journalistic skills. For example, we require everybody to have one multi-media project per semester and one in-depth feature written a some point during the year.
Team Bonding
Tower is a big family. We have out of school gatherings, go on journalism trips, and have family dinners together during deadline.
We host an annual summer picnic to assign stories for the first day issue and get to know new staffers. This is a great opportunity to get a head start on some of the requirements and bond after a summer apart.
However, we do have a large number of students who choose to go to MIPA camp over the summer. My first MIPA camp was in 2014; I took Advanced In-Design with Jim Woehrle, earning an award of excellence. I really enjoyed bonding with my staff while leaning new skills with the program that I had never used before. In addition, this was one of the first times I met our new adviser, Rod Satterthwaite. Even though we had just met him, Satt joined the Tower family instantly and was incredibly supportive, especially when we painted the MSU rock in honor of our old adviser, Nard.
The Tower 2014-2015 MIPA students in front of the rock after painting it for Nard.
I helped paint the rock with some of the 2014-2015 leadership team members.
The MIPA girls enjoying smores at Cosi during one of our first bonding dinners with Satt.
The MIPA group on the last day after the closing award ceremony.
This year, we had around 15 students attend the summer MIPA workshop. I spent my time in the Taking Your Newspaper to the Edge Class with C.E. Sikkenga and Tracy Anderson. With three other members of my leadership team, we finish our entire tentative redesign and came up with more straight-forward policies for staff members. In addition, we had nine students win awards.
Some of the 2015-2106 MIPA girls with our Lights n Caves shirts before the concert.
I got to know Mr. and Mrs. Satterthwaite well throughout the camp; they are my favorite MIPA couple.
The MIPA 2015-2016 award winners. We had one student receive the Advanced In-Design Sparty.
Throughout the year, our staff has other bonding opportunities as well. One of the most anticipated Tower events is the annual Holiday party. A week of Secret Santa leads up to the event where we present paper plate awards, eat dinner, and exchange gifts. First year staffers receive a watch, second years get a water bottle, and the few third year members receive a portfolio; all gifts are customized with the Tower logo. In addition, everybody received a sweatshirt that I designed. This year, I hosted the event.
The 2015-2016 sweatshirt design that I created.
The Tower cake which was completely gone at the end of the night after everybody had a piece.
A portion of the group who attended; there were about 50 out of 80 staff members there…talk about crowded.
The Tower gifts that everybody received.
JENNIFER MAIORANA 