With my first year at the University of Connecticut stuck at home due to COVID-19, by the time I ended up transferring from the Stamford campus to the main campus in the spring of 2022, I was eager to get involved in as much as possible. But at a school with over 600 student organizations, there were certainly a lot of options to choose from.
In retrospect, it seemed like an odd decision for me to join The Daily Campus. Not only was I almost halfway through my time at UConn when I arrived at Storrs, but I was not even a journalism major.
However, I knew I loved to write. So, with only the introductory journalism class I had taken freshman year of high school under my belt, I decided to take a chance and attend one of the weekly news meetings. I told myself that if I did not like it, I would not force myself to return the following week. But one story quickly grew into many more, and The Daily Campus became the place I could write about constantly changing topics of importance to me and the UConn community.
In the four semesters that have followed since I joined The Daily Campus, I have had the privilege to write over 60 news articles, become a staff writer and dedicate hundreds of hours towards honing my writing skills.
But beyond that, The Daily Campus has made me truly appreciate journalism. The Daily Campus strives to provide fair, accurate, relevant and editorially independent content. In an era of misinformation and extreme political polarization, these core values are more important now than ever before. While I am in no way an expert at reporting nor “journalistic writing” (I still do not understand half the nuances of AP style…), I am proud to have always done my best to reflect these ever so important values in every article I wrote.
I also had the privilege of meeting many fantastic people during my time at The Daily Campus, including those I met while conducting interviews, other writers in the news section and the staff involved behind the scenes. I want to especially thank both the former News Editor, Tommy Alvarez and the outgoing News Editor, Colin Piteo, for all their guidance early on. Moreover, to all my friends and the UConn staff who would often tell me they read my article in the paper, I cannot thank you enough for showing your interest in my work.
Most of all, as I transition into the next phase of my life and begin law school in the fall, I cannot thank The Daily Campus enough for the many fond memories and for giving me an outlet to dedicate time to the art form we all love so much: writing.
Congratulations to the class of 2024!