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Olivet College will be welcoming in its four new student media leaders in the Fall semester of 2020. The positions that were filled were Garfield Lake Review editor, WOCR station manager, editor of The Echo, and the newest position, social media coordinator.
Junior and upcoming Garfield Lake Review editor Andrenae Johnson said her position is to be in charge of “how the next (literary journal) edition will be with the help of the students” and their ideas. Johnson said, “Whatever goals they (the students in the department) have will also be my goals.” Despite being nervous at first, she said she is “very excited”, and that she is most looking forward to the “experience” and “improving” the department in general.
“I’ve never been in control of anything before, so, it’s out of my comfort zone,” said Johnson. She also said this experience will help her to “be more comfortable into jumping into big positions” like this one, and that when she got the offer, she just went for it.
She chose this position because she was “asked” by Director of the Writing Program, Meredith Dodson, to apply for it, and she does not have much on her resume, so this is something “huge”. She said she would like to thank God and thank her mother for encouraging her. She would also like to thank Dodson, Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication Joanne Williams, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication Daine Pavloski, and senior Jack Caporuscio for making it “comfortable” to express herself in her interview—telling them her “true ideas” and “true feelings”.
Johnson said, “If you ever think about jumping into a position that you’ve never done or any position at all . . . first pray about it . . . or if you’re not religious, then talk to somebody you’re comfortable with, and even if you don’t . . . just boost yourself up . . .”
Future WOCR Station Manager and junior Travis Garner said his position oversees the “programming” for the station, as well as recruiting and hiring people to help run the board. Garner said, “I’m excited . . . It’ll be a good resume builder for me for future jobs, and I’m excited to hopefully try to get some more people involved with the station.”
He said he is most looking forward to “helping people” that are involved and “helping get the name of the radio station out there.” He also said that the department plans to hold office hours for students who have questions or want to start their own radio show during the week.
Garner said that he chose this position for the “experience” of going into the journalism field and to help the radio station. He said that there have been contemplations of creating new WOCR logos and merchandise as well. Garner said that he would like to thank Williams for encouraging and helping him apply for the position. He also said he would like to thank Pavloski because he was the first person he told that he wanted to apply and guided him through the process. “Ever since I switched to JMC (Journalism and Mass Communications) my sophomore year, he’s (Pavloski) been really influential to me. He’s always the person I go to if I have problems or if . . . I have an idea . . . he’s always super encouraging.”
Sophomore Nina Butts, who became the new Echo editor this spring semester after Alyssa Bergey resigned, said she is “excited” to continue in the fall. She said her position is in charge of managing everyone in the Echo team, producing the paper—making sure all of the stories are edited and formatted into a layout—and making sure it gets to the publisher on time.
Butts said she is looking most forward to “eventually” moving the newspaper to only being published online. She said, “A lot of money goes into publishing and print, and a lot of it kind of goes to waste because I don’t think we get a lot of traffic through the physical newspaper . . . I’m glad that we do have this period of time (while being off campus due to the cautions of this coronavirus pandemic) to kind of test run what it would be like to go completely digital . . . So, I’m looking forward to . . . innovating and reshaping the paper to be a little bit more modern and . . . more practical. . .” One thing Butts said she plans to work on having is the choice for students to be “able to put their own work on the website themselves”, so they can have “more of a handle” of the paper’s content. She also said that publishing online will make it more “versatile” (adaptable) for students.
One of the reasons she said she chose to be editor was because “it was the best position” for her “as a person”, and that she could be “the most qualified” for it with her skills. Butts also said she loves the team that she was given this year and is “really excited” about who’s going to be on her team next year. She said she would like to thank Bergey for well preparing her for this position and Williams for encouraging her to take it. “I hope that when I eventually stop being editor, that I have prepared someone enough to become editor as well as I was prepared,” said Butts.
Julia Bidelman, sophomore, said she will be the “first ever” social media coordinator, and that her position will include running the social media accounts for the Garfield Lake Review, WOCR, and the Echo. She also said, “I feel like a lot of people don’t really know that any of those things exist on campus unless you’re . . . a writing major or journalism major, so I’m gonna follow as many people as I can find on social media . . . (such as Snapchat) . . . then I’m gonna try to get the word out there.” She also said she is excited to do this because “social media is a big part of today” and people won’t see things if it’s not on there.
She said she is looking most forward to “creating a new position” in the field that she wants and teaching someone else how to do it before she leaves, which is why she chose to take it. Bidelman said she would like to thank Pavloski because she started to do social media in his video production class, and he encouraged her to apply for the position. She would also like to thank Williams and junior Sidney McIntosh for their help. Bidelman said she plans to make the (social media) “platform bigger” for all three departments and “combine” them onto one website. She also said she plans to “include a variety of different people instead of just people on a sports team or . . . faces that you always see, (and) include people that you never see or never hear about . . . (and) make it about everyone.”