Looking back on my semester as editor-in-chief, I realize this wasn’t the experience I thought it would be.

Unlike past editors, I’m not going to reflect on my editorship with only positive memories.
I faced many challenges, but I never imagined where I would find the most trying obstacles in my path to success as an editor.
In our first issue this semester, I wrote a letter acknowledging my young age and the possibility of not being taken seriously by faculty and administrators as The Globe worked for more transparency from the University. However, I was able to have successful meetings with faculty as we worked together to tackle the problem. My fellow editors and I met with School of Communication staff to figure out the best solutions to the never-ending battle to obtain the information we needed to write a quality story.I even made enough progress to have a positive meeting with a member of the marketing department who had only been a figure behind the computer screen denying us interviews. The person holding up the stonewall blocking us from information became a friendly face and was willing to work with us to resolve the situation.
Despite this achievement, the most educational challenge I faced this semester came from my peers. The power dynamic between a young, female student and fellow undergraduates can be a difficult terrain to navigate.The most impactful lesson I am taking away from this experience has little to do with being an editor-in-chief. It has hardly anything to do with journalism at all. I learned how to remain professional in the workplace, which I also learned is a skill that needs to be practiced and polished before students enter into the workplace.
We need to practice resolving conflicts with our peers before we enter into an office off campus. I unfortunately had to log lots of hours practicing having my earned authority questioned at every turn by my colleagues.
I have come to appreciate minority leaders in any capacity. I will never disrespect the authority of someone in charge even if he or she is younger than I am or I don’t completely understand the individual’s choices or qualifications. Office relationships are always going to hit some bumps, especially amongst stressed college students, but it is something
that must be respected for a positive environment to be maintained.
Some weeks it was hard to get myself into the office. It became difficult to deal with the simplest of decisions without receiving input from other staff members, often ones that could use some more professionalism practice. Even more frustrating, it’s not easy to be tough on a staff of volunteers and expect them to stick around; I learned that lesson early on.
I wasn’t joyfully running into the office each week, but I had a job to do.
Was the paper perfect? No. I’ll be the first to admit we made mistakes each week. InDesign can have a mind of its own, and commas, semicolons and colons are always going to be the worst enemies to writers and copy editors.
I quickly realized I couldn’t dwell on each little error; I needed to find pride. We need to be proud of what we accomplish. We are humans, flawed yet defiant. I learned to look at the rack each week and smile. We put out a good paper.
We wrote newsworthy stories that informed our audience even when we were up against our less-than-transparent
University. The newspaper was even given compliments by some tough critics and despite the headaches it’s given
me, I’m proud to have my name on it.
I set out to prove to this University that this is a reputable publication run by students who deserve some respect, and I have no doubt in my mind that we did that.