The Daily: Editor-in-Chief

June 2020-June 2021

Working as the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily this year has been one of the largest responsibilities, and greatest learning experience, of my life. It really feels like a true test of the lessons I’ve been taking in throughout my various college experiences so far, like teaching as a Peer Educator, tutoring, and editing both as an eNotes intern and Daily section editor. That was all the runway, and this is the actual flight. It has taught me so much about what it means to take responsibility, as in actively owning mistakes and striving to learn and grow from them, and also as in being dependable and accountable to your whole team. I’ve never been responsible for so many people before, or for such a large enterprise. It’s forced me to maintain some sense of structure in my life (which, due to the pandemic, might not otherwise exist this year) and reexamine the systems and habits I have developed for school and work over time, looking for what is actually helping me succeed and what is getting in my way. I can’t afford to drop very many balls or to slack, since so many people are depending on me. 

I’m not spelling all this out just to complain about all the work on my plate -- it has been such an invaluable and irreplaceable experience, teaching me just as many hard skills (emails, interviews, community outreach, money and time management) as life lessons (how to lead even when you have trouble perceiving yourself as a leader, how to trust yourself, how to strike the balance between idealism and pragmatism, how to identify your values and how they might guide your creativity and job performance). It has also been so gratifying to work with a team of dedicated student journalists who are still working hard and well despite ALL that has been thrown at them over the past year.

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Below, I've embedded a section of our annual Welcome Edition -- the first print product that I worked on as EIC. It was such a surreal (and nerve-wracking) experience to go through the publication process and see it arrive on stands before school started back up for the fall.