Student publications have been a major part of the four years I’ve been at RB and have created experiences in my life that will stick with me forever. Now that I am a senior and finally leaving RB, with only my byline left, I encourage you to join one of award winning publications I have put blood, sweat, and tears into for the past three years.

I have been on the Rouser staff since my sophomore year and this year and I am a first year Clarion reporter. I decided that being a part of student publications would help me pursue my interest in studying journalism in college. Student publications, however, are not just a class where you sit at a computer for 52 minutes and maybe type two words per minute. Student publications force you to talk to people you don’t know, write until you can’t stand an article any longer, and maybe have some people who aren’t too happy with you. I have found that Rouser and Clarion have taught me so many things that have never been taught in a normal class. In these classes, you learn to step out of the box, time management, how to write a lot of emails and keep people updated, and how to write up to the high standards of the Rouser writing editor, me.

One of the best things that happened to me last year was when I had to do the football spread (or two pages) for Rouser. I was intimidated by the task and I was dreading having to track down the football team in the lunchroom. Intimidated, I went down to A lunch and  found the people I was hoping to talk to. I found everyone I wanted to interview–all at the exact same table. I grabbed onto my fancy co-editor-in-chief press pass and started talking to whoever it was I first started to interview. I was just about to grab a chair when someone jumped up, got me a chair, and basically invited me to sit with them. I ended up interviewing most of the team who sat at that table and they all were courteous. I can’t express how grateful I was for their attitudes and it was clear to me that the 2013-2014 football team was “One team, one heartbeat.”

In Clarion, thus far, I interviewed Dr. Skinkis twice, Ms. Smetana, and instructional coaches, just to name a few. Clarion has shown me that everything that happens has some story to go with it from the fate of the End Zone Garden to Lunchables and Portillo’s beef sandwiches. Clarion has opened my eyes to finding interesting people and writing what I want to write. In Rouser, it is a little more structured because we have to cover certain things each year or we will hear complaints from everyone; however, you are recording history every time you finish a page. And trust me, there is nothing like the fresh smell of ink and the creak a yearbook makes the first time you open it after working on it for a whole year.

Still, because I have a presence in both classes this year, my eyes are open to two different parts of RB history. I’m a part of RB’s present with updated information for Clarion and 20 years down the line, you will be reading my byline and hopefully finally reading some of the best stories that I have read in your copies of the Rouser.

When you are registering classes for the next school year, I hope you seriously consider taking Rouser, Clarion, or both. Each class will teach you to go out of the box, take amazing pictures using fantastic equipment, write like you have never written before, and be a part of a family.