When I was a freshman, I never pictured myself as a leader. However, during student orientation, my biggest dream was to become a reporter at WSU Vancouver’s outstanding newsmagazine, The VanCougar. After some persistence, I was hired on and thrown into a chaotic newsroom consisting of deadlines, countless interviews and pulling flyers out of trash cans, but I definitely loved every second of it.
After working my way through reporter and copy editor positions, I wanted to seek out big news for our small publication, which is why I set out to become editor-in-chief in 2020. During my first year, I faced challenges like no other–I confronted an exceedingly high turnover rate, and produced our publication remotely. However, I decided to stick it out, and I am so glad I did.
This year, The VanCougar has grown from a team of four to 11 hardworking, compassionate and thriving journalists. My team challenged me this year by constantly asking questions and voicing their opinions, even more so if they disagreed with my own. Through this work environment, we were able to publish issues with incredible stories from discussing how the war on Ukraine is affecting students, to the lack of Indigenous presence on campus.
Looking back, I used to believe a good leader made decisions and guided their team along the way. While this might be true to some extent, I think the best leaders encourage diverse perspectives and ultimately let the entire team craft our publication.
I am beyond proud of the work I have done at The VanCougar, but I am even more excited to see what our future team does in years to come.
Thank you for everything.
Sincerely,
2021/2022 Editor-in-Chief
Emily Baumann
Emily is a senior studying integrated strategic communication at WSU Vancouver.