Anthony Rentsch: I’ve only been working at the Daily Collegian for a year, but already it has given me so much. Not only has the Collegian provided me with the incredible opportunity to work in a real newsroom setting – with real news stories and, yes, real deadlines – but it has allowed me to interact with this campus in a way that most students don’t get the chance to.
I’ve gotten a chance to step back, expand my horizons and see what’s going on in every corner of campus. And the best part is that I get to be the one to tell the story – whether it’s illuminating the work of students or casting a shadow onto an issue that needs to be resolved – and get important conversations started.
Nick Canelas: The Collegian, to me, is home. It’s all of the good — and overly stressful — about the last four years of my life. It’s where I’ve met my closest friends, and where I go for no good reason. It’s a place without windows. There are dusty surfaces, scattered papers and a TV made before I was born. But there’s an innate beauty to it.
The Collegian is a place of opportunity, where four years ago an aspiring journalist walked into the old graphics room (RIP) and was introduced to the spectacle that is a daily college newspaper. That day spawned an unbreakable addiction.
It is here where my journalism career began. It’s here where I learned about ledes, feature headlines and Adobe InDesign. It’s here where I lost countless hours of sleep, watched a pair of Boston sports teams clinch championships and threw balled-up newspapers at people for my own amusement.
The Collegian is the greatest wonder the University of Massachusetts has to offer. For everything it’s provided me in preparation for life after graduation, I’m indebted.
The Collegian is, and always will be, home.
Charlotte Hoff: The Collegian is a place full of nice, funny and hardworking people. The Collegian is like a welcoming family to me, where I can always find a friendly face and someone to talk to whenever I need. I have made so many friends through the Collegian, and I know that I can count on any one of them and that they will be my friends for years to come.
The Collegian has taught me a lot and given me many opportunities to learn skills, such as how to run an organization’s social media page as well as skills about working with other people as a team, that I will retain for use in future jobs.
My time at the Collegian has been filled with memories and experiences that I will remember forever. I always look forward to going down to the Collegian office and seeing everyone because I know that any time at the Collegian is a good time. The Collegian has become such a great part of my life and I can’t wait to see what the next three years there have in store for me.
Claire Anderson: This week the Delta State Statement in Mississippi was cut from the Delta State University budget. I am forever grateful that the Daily Collegian has avoided this fate; we avoided cutting the paper and going exclusively online, while publishing fantastic and open content.
Joining the Daily Collegian was one of the best things I did at UMass, it’s where I spent countless hours not sleeping but writing about addiction, the Iranian student ban and politics, and photographed the Super Bowl aftermath.
The Collegian gave me so many opportunities to explore, to test my limits, fall on my face and then the friends to pick me up again after I make a fool of myself. I am so proud of this newspaper, in the refusal to bend pressure and the content produced day after day. I am so honored that I was able to be part of this fabulous paper, which has constantly challenged me and made me a better person.
Cory Willey: There is no better campus organization for the development of a young writer and journalist than the Daily Collegian. From correspondents to editors, everyone has a say in what goes into each issue. Complete control falls upon the shoulders of the students who choose to take on the responsibility of producing a paper four days a week. Everyone here has a strong passion not only for journalism but for the UMass community as well.
When I transferred to UMass my sophomore year, I had no interest in journalism whatsoever. I saw the Collegian’s table at an activities event in the Student Union and just put my name down because I loved to write about film and television. Two years later I became the Arts Editor of the Collegian, and it’s been the most rewarding experience of my college career. I’ll always look back on my years at the Collegian with a sense of pride. Everyone here does incredible work on every single issue. I’m glad to have been a part of this paper.
Issac Simon: The Collegian gives students the opportunity to learn about journalism and how to become journalists. It provides a platform for students to express their views on a variety of issues that matter at UMass. It is a newspaper that recognizes the importance of the collegiate viewpoint. When glancing at the Collegian, it is an chance for students to learn from fellow students regarding what’s taking place on campus. This makes journalism a personal experience. For me, it has become a vehicle of knowledge that informs the collegiate environment.
Jaclyn Bryson: I started sophomore year without a plan. I had a new roommate, I lost touch with the people I had met freshman year and I was starting to take classes I thought were way over my head.
Then I joined the Collegian.
At first, I thought nothing could get better than seeing my name on the front page. I loved putting my writing skills to the test, conducting interviews and doing research to produce a story that would be published and circulated across campus. I loved knowing that people were reading my work, and that I was getting real world experience in the field of journalism at a real newspaper.
But then I started becoming more involved at the Collegian, and I began to realize I wasn’t just sticking around for the experience – I was staying for the people.
The Collegian has become more than just an office to me, it has become a home, and the people I work with have become my family. I’ve been in the office until 3 a.m. not because I had work to do, but because I just didn’t want to leave. I’ve met people who have become more than just editors and writers to me, but have become my closest friends. These are the people I never want to lose touch with, the people I want to see graduate and get jobs, become successful. These are the people who have made the Collegian my home.
Kate Leddy: I’ll never forget the first time I went to the Collegian newsroom. I had only been in college for three weeks and had all the traits of a nervous freshman. I felt inexperienced, overwhelmed and worried that this was not my place to jump right in. But the staff member giving the tour at the time – someone who would later become my supervisor in the news section as well as my friend – assured me that the Collegian was the place to learn and gain journalistic skills, and that no question was a stupid question. He then showed me the “Jennifer Lawrence Wall of Fame” in the newsroom, and I was in.
Working at the Collegian has given me a learning experience I couldn’t get in any class on campus, awesome new friendships and memories I will happily look back on when I graduate. I feel part of a family that extends for decades, and I’m so grateful to be able to contribute to something that has been growing and thriving for 125 years. Cheers to everyone who has made this paper what it is today. You are all awesome.
Patrick Hoff: The Collegian, to me, is a family. It’s the most special place on campus, where you get to sit at a desk and do work that you love doing with people that mean the world to you. I came down to the office the first week of freshman year, and I’ve practically never left. From Katie Landeck and Billy Perkins as my first mentors, to Malea Ritz and Maria Uminksi as my Collegian moms, there have been so many people I’ve encountered at the Collegian that have changed my life for the better. And that’s not even including all the people I’ve had to privilege to interview for articles.
People always ask me why I spend so much time at the Collegian. I think it’s because it’s the place on campus where I feel most at home. It’s a quiet office, tucked away in the basement of the Campus Center, where nobody really bothers you unless they come looking for you. It’s dusty, it’s disheveled, but everyone’s home is that way. There are couches, there’s food right upstairs at Blue Wall, there’s some of the people I care about most – what more does a home need?
Randy Crandon: When I joined the Daily Collegian in the fall of 2013, I was immediately inspired by everyone’s dedication and enthusiasm. Since then, I have come to realize how special it is to be a part of an organization in which everyone is so self-motivated, creative, hardworking and personable. Working at the Collegian over the past two years has helped me develop as a student, designer and artist, and the experience has made my time at UMass all the more rewarding.
Zac Bears: The Collegian serves as the major source of information about issues important to students on campus. In my time as a columnist and editor, I’ve published opinions on student government, “Blarney Blowout,” Super Bowl celebrations, national politics, the Iranian graduate student ban and other topics that have had significant impact both on campus and in the greater community. Having that ability as a young, university student opened my eyes to the importance of media in every aspect of our society, big or small.
Many colleges and universities across the country aren’t graced with the presence of a 125-year-old institution that earns recognition and respect from the campus community and many people across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With its movement into the digital realm and the growing consumption of online media, the Collegian will be as essential to the next 125 years of University of Massachusetts history as it has been since its founding over a century ago.
