I’m back, Cleveland State University (CSU)—better than ever, with a fresh new last name, a bachelor’s degree under my belt and a master’s degree in public administration on the way.
I could have said goodbye to The Cauldron as I moved into this next chapter, but I’m not quite finished yet. As I continue striving toward my own goals, I have a few words for you at the start of your semester.
This year, I will do my best to encourage my team — and myself — to bring the Cleveland State community meaningful stories and refreshing journalism that informs, inspires and empowers you.
But I can’t do that without starting with one campuswide PSA.
So, lean in.
The importance of journalism could be summed up as “gathering important information, verifying it and then sharing it with the public.” But that is not enough for me, and it never has been.
Journalism, to me, is more than the mundane task of informing people. It is about drawing attention to the stories and issues that deserve to be seen. It is about spending countless hours investigating, writing and sharing matters that you, as a journalist, deem important.
Down to the last detail, journalism is curated, specific and unique. Every decision — what questions to ask, whom to interview, what details to include and even what stories are worth telling — shapes what a reader comes to understand. In that sense, the journalist has the ability to guide, challenge and expand a reader’s knowledge of the world around them.
That is exactly why, this semester, I implore you, CSU, to begin being journalists in your own lives.
Yes, gather important information. Verify it. Question it. Share it. But while doing so, be present. Live in the world around you. Put your phone down. Download the time-management apps that block your social media. Look up and breathe in the world around you.
We are all chained, to some degree, to the highly curated lives of the people we know and love online. We live through screens, consuming information selected, edited and presented to us as reality.
In some ways, that resembles journalism at its most basic level: Someone decides what information you will see and how you will see it. But when we allow that curated digital world to consume our attention, we risk missing the stories unfolding directly in front of us — the stories that change lives, expand minds and shape futures.
I challenge you, and I also challenge myself and the entire Cauldron team: be present.
Life is happening all around us. You can either let the world tell you what to think, what to value and who to be, or you can take control — ask questions, seek the truth and make informed decisions grounded in reality.
Look up. Pay attention. Be curious. Be your own journalist.
