I’ve always been a fan of maps.

I can’t put my finger on what fascinates me about them, but I’ve always enjoyed the way maps look and the patterns woven within them.

Maps are physical representations of the world. The world is tangible but only as far as the horizon line allows you to see. With a map, however, you can see as far as you want – scale willing, of course.

The closest thing I’ve had to experiencing that same sense of depth a map produces was a flight to Chicago the month before I started at Point Park. Cruising at some great height, the patchwork parcels and veins of the country come into focus. In that moment you realize how small a space you personally occupy. The most striking thing in that moment is the scale and the perspective you occupy – even for an hour-long flight.

My name is Alex Popichak, and I’m going to be the editor-in-chief this year, and in case you missed the ad at the end of last semester, Feb. 8, 2017 marks our 50th anniversary. We’re excited to celebrate 50 years of award-winning collegiate journalism, and I hope that shows in the coming issues. All the while we are going to strive to keep producing the same quality content, and I hope that shows, too.

In coming up with the ideas driving the 50th anniversary celebration, I have been inspired by two things: newspaper clippings and road maps.

The concept of a road map is much the same concept as a newspaper. Maps show you not only where you’ve been but where you can go – and our pages show you where students, faculty, staff and administration have gone and where they are going.

Each story we tell or accomplishment we document is like a dotted city in a map. They’re scattered about by the club or team or office they’re involved in. Each journey to get there is either a back road or highway. In the end they’re all roads and in the end they’re all the stories that make up the Globe.

We’ve assembled a great staff of people – names both new and familiar – that have a passion for the stories they tell and share a want to help connect the dots for you, our reader.

That’s the approach we’ve set out for ourselves – within the frame of the past we’re building a picture of the future of Point Park.

From the very first edition of the Globe we’ve been looking for contributors from all perspectives. As we have since 1967, we rely on volunteers to contribute to us in order to put together this paper each week. If you’ve been waiting for some personal invitation to contribute – consider this your call to action.

This year, resolve to use your own map for whatever journey you want to take – and the Point Park Globe will be right here to document it.