The Auburn Circle
After serving as the editor-in-chief of my high school literary magazine, I decided to continue my work with literary magazines in college. As soon as I got to Auburn, I applied for a position on The Circle. I was accepted onto the staff and appointed as fiction-section editor, which held its challenges since I was not yet familiar with the staff. Through this position, I learned to be a humble and respectful leader since I was younger than many of the students in my section.
After completing my freshman year at Auburn, I applied to be managing editor of The Circle. I wanted to become more involved with the inner workings of the publication and also had hopes of becoming editor-in-chief the following year. Serving as managing editor opened my eyes to the complexity and hard work behind literary-art magazines. Along with the editor-in-chief, I worked endlessly to communicate with the staff, with the submitters, with our advisors, and with our publisher to create two beautifully designed magazines. We had our challenges (for instance, we accidentally credited a poem to the wrong author) and had to approach these challenges with professionalism and willingness to admit any mistakes. (The piece was reprinted in the following issue with the correct credentials.) Over the year, I greatly improved my public speaking skills by leading staff meetings. I corresponded constantly over group and interpersonal emails. I organized paperwork and submissions, and sent letters of acceptance or rejection to various submitters. As the managing editor, I had the opportunity to hone in on my public relations skills and to help with The Circle’s release event SNAPS. I now have experience with office management and event planning.
After serving as managing editor my sophomore year, I applied for and became editor-in-chief. My responsibilities as editor-in-chief were widespread, from delegating to a staff of 23 students to attending various meetings with faculty and other student leaders. I changed our submission process to make it more efficient for us and also easier for the submitters. I created and stuck to our production schedule and handled all communications with the printer. Alongside the graphic designer, I worked to achieve a higher quality aesthetic for The Circle so that it would be more professional and more appealing to the student body. We distributed 3,000 magazines to the student body in the fall and 3,500 magazines in the spring. (When I say we distributed magazines, I mean quite literally that myself and the staff personally handed out each of those magazines to thousands of students over the course of 3 days by standing around campus with tables and posters.)
One of the most significant experiences I had as editor-in-chief was working with the other leaders in student media (editors and producers of the radio station, television station, yearbook, and newspaper). We came together to collaborate on projects and help publicize for each other's groups. These interactions reaffirmed my passion for media and encouraged me to get involved beyond The Circle. At the end of the year, I had the great honor of being awarded Female Leader of the Year at the 2016 Auburn Involvement Awards. I cannot adequately sum up everything I learned from being editor-in-chief of The Circle as my experiences were varied and innumerable. However, some of the more relevant ones involve communication, staff bonding, working with people in authority positions, scheduling, planning events, time management, blog writing and editing, and pushing heavy boxes around on dollies. The year certainly came with unexpected challenges (new advisors, broken golf carts, censorship, shortage of Comfort Colors t-shirts), but I feel confident in saying that it was an extremely successful year for the Auburn Circle. I can also confidently, and somewhat sentimentally, say that literary magazines will always hold a special place in my heart.
The more recent editions of The Circle can be found online by clicking here, although they are much more striking in print.
After completing my freshman year at Auburn, I applied to be managing editor of The Circle. I wanted to become more involved with the inner workings of the publication and also had hopes of becoming editor-in-chief the following year. Serving as managing editor opened my eyes to the complexity and hard work behind literary-art magazines. Along with the editor-in-chief, I worked endlessly to communicate with the staff, with the submitters, with our advisors, and with our publisher to create two beautifully designed magazines. We had our challenges (for instance, we accidentally credited a poem to the wrong author) and had to approach these challenges with professionalism and willingness to admit any mistakes. (The piece was reprinted in the following issue with the correct credentials.) Over the year, I greatly improved my public speaking skills by leading staff meetings. I corresponded constantly over group and interpersonal emails. I organized paperwork and submissions, and sent letters of acceptance or rejection to various submitters. As the managing editor, I had the opportunity to hone in on my public relations skills and to help with The Circle’s release event SNAPS. I now have experience with office management and event planning.
After serving as managing editor my sophomore year, I applied for and became editor-in-chief. My responsibilities as editor-in-chief were widespread, from delegating to a staff of 23 students to attending various meetings with faculty and other student leaders. I changed our submission process to make it more efficient for us and also easier for the submitters. I created and stuck to our production schedule and handled all communications with the printer. Alongside the graphic designer, I worked to achieve a higher quality aesthetic for The Circle so that it would be more professional and more appealing to the student body. We distributed 3,000 magazines to the student body in the fall and 3,500 magazines in the spring. (When I say we distributed magazines, I mean quite literally that myself and the staff personally handed out each of those magazines to thousands of students over the course of 3 days by standing around campus with tables and posters.)
One of the most significant experiences I had as editor-in-chief was working with the other leaders in student media (editors and producers of the radio station, television station, yearbook, and newspaper). We came together to collaborate on projects and help publicize for each other's groups. These interactions reaffirmed my passion for media and encouraged me to get involved beyond The Circle. At the end of the year, I had the great honor of being awarded Female Leader of the Year at the 2016 Auburn Involvement Awards. I cannot adequately sum up everything I learned from being editor-in-chief of The Circle as my experiences were varied and innumerable. However, some of the more relevant ones involve communication, staff bonding, working with people in authority positions, scheduling, planning events, time management, blog writing and editing, and pushing heavy boxes around on dollies. The year certainly came with unexpected challenges (new advisors, broken golf carts, censorship, shortage of Comfort Colors t-shirts), but I feel confident in saying that it was an extremely successful year for the Auburn Circle. I can also confidently, and somewhat sentimentally, say that literary magazines will always hold a special place in my heart.
The more recent editions of The Circle can be found online by clicking here, although they are much more striking in print.
Weld for Birmingham
During the summer of 2016, I was an intern for a weekly print newspaper called Weld for Birmingham. (Weld is unfortunately no longer in business.) My responsibilities included researching and writing news stories, as well as assisting with the production process. Each Wednesday afternoon, I attended the weekly staff meetings and received my assignment for the coming news cycle. On Thursday, Friday, and Monday I conducted research and interviews, photographed and designed appropriate art to accompany my articles, and wrote the articles. Usually I would do one or two articles per news cycle. Many times the articles required me to attend an event in the community.
On Tuesday, after wrapping up my own work, I would go into the Weld Google drive and edit all the articles for the coming issue. I would mostly check for AP style mistakes (unwillingly removing each Oxford comma); however, if I had a question about content I would leave a comment in the margins for the managing editor. Then I would stay at the office until 8 or 9 p.m. and proofread the PDFs of the layouts as our graphic designer completed them. I noted any mistakes and turned them in to the graphic designer on a Google document since I didn't have InDesign on my personal laptop. The paper would be sent off late Tuesday night and delivered to the office on Wednesday morning.
By staying late and participating in the production process, I was able to not only practice my copyediting and proofing skills, but I also had the opportunity to observe the graphic designer. I was able to see how he laid out the paper each week. Since I already have a good working-knowledge of InDesign from my work with literary magazines, it was easy for me to understand what he was doing. Now, I not only know what it is like to be a reporter, but I also know what it is like to work in the production department at a paper. Because Weld is a small company with only about eight full-time staff members, I was able to learn about many different aspects of the journalism world. I do not believe I would have been able to have the same varied experiences at a larger paper.
I also got to know the entire staff, including the owners of the paper, because of the small size. I interacted with the entire staff on a daily basis in the office, although the managing editor that I reported to worked out of the office. In my interactions, I got to learn about how everyone, from the publisher to the marketing intern, got to be where they are now professionally. This gave me important insight that I can use when making my own professional decisions in the future.
All of my articles were published in the print edition as well as online. The links are below:
"Going around the gates"
"Freedom Riders and Angels"
"A short business primer"
"After the fire at Trades Towers"
"Hatching Hope brings disaster relief to Birmingham"
"Welfare in the age of reform"
"New color on old walls"
"'The real story gets told'"
"Behind closed doors"
On Tuesday, after wrapping up my own work, I would go into the Weld Google drive and edit all the articles for the coming issue. I would mostly check for AP style mistakes (unwillingly removing each Oxford comma); however, if I had a question about content I would leave a comment in the margins for the managing editor. Then I would stay at the office until 8 or 9 p.m. and proofread the PDFs of the layouts as our graphic designer completed them. I noted any mistakes and turned them in to the graphic designer on a Google document since I didn't have InDesign on my personal laptop. The paper would be sent off late Tuesday night and delivered to the office on Wednesday morning.
By staying late and participating in the production process, I was able to not only practice my copyediting and proofing skills, but I also had the opportunity to observe the graphic designer. I was able to see how he laid out the paper each week. Since I already have a good working-knowledge of InDesign from my work with literary magazines, it was easy for me to understand what he was doing. Now, I not only know what it is like to be a reporter, but I also know what it is like to work in the production department at a paper. Because Weld is a small company with only about eight full-time staff members, I was able to learn about many different aspects of the journalism world. I do not believe I would have been able to have the same varied experiences at a larger paper.
I also got to know the entire staff, including the owners of the paper, because of the small size. I interacted with the entire staff on a daily basis in the office, although the managing editor that I reported to worked out of the office. In my interactions, I got to learn about how everyone, from the publisher to the marketing intern, got to be where they are now professionally. This gave me important insight that I can use when making my own professional decisions in the future.
All of my articles were published in the print edition as well as online. The links are below:
"Going around the gates"
"Freedom Riders and Angels"
"A short business primer"
"After the fire at Trades Towers"
"Hatching Hope brings disaster relief to Birmingham"
"Welfare in the age of reform"
"New color on old walls"
"'The real story gets told'"
"Behind closed doors"