by Gabriella Depinho, Editor-in-Chief
Wow, what a long year 2020 has been. As the year comes to a close, this is my last letter to you as Editor-in-Chief. At the moment of writing, I do not know who my successor will be, but I want you to know all of the candidates are fit for the job. I promise, you will be in good hands.
When I stepped into this role, I said I was grateful, honored and excited. I knew a lot of trust had been placed in me and that I had big shoes to fill as I served both my peers on staff and the community at large. Today, I write to you grateful, honored, a little exhausted and full of joy. Each week, I poured my heart into this paper, did the nitty-gritty work it takes to get a paper into your hands, and challenged my staff
in an effort to lift us to new heights. When the pandemic hit, my goal became making sure we survived. I am here to report that we did not only survive the pandemic, we soared to new heights because of it.
In my first letter, I promised that we’d bring you all of the stories, big or small, that make us who we are as a Jasper community. I believe we have done that and we have done that well this year. We published two special issues, had year-long campus-focused election coverage, sports reporting when all sports were canceled, filled the arts & entertainment section with meaningful coverage (even when it felt like all experiences of the arts were canceled), wrote unique features on truly wonderful community members, and covered important topics from sexual assaults on campus to every COVID-19 case update to the budget cuts covered in this issue to period products being provided for free on campus and more.
I am grateful for the countless hours of work from each editor, each writer and each contributor to this paper. It is because of you, your collective effort, that we have been able to hold steady in such turbulent times. The entire team’s tenacity has been nothing short of inspiring. Hold each other in your hearts, challenge each other, recognize how special this is. We always have each other.
To Nick, our advisor, I am grateful for your guidance, your advice, the time you spent helping us transition through the pandemic and for the copy-edited PDFs. You make all of us better.
We are also only successful because of the support of the campus community that reaffirms the value of the college newspaper with each issue it picks up. I am grateful for every reader and for every person who has sent us a tip or comment on a story.
Being Editor-in-Chief has been the honor of a lifetime and I will cherish these memories forever. There have been many late nights and many frustrations, but there has also been so much joy and so much laughter. This role has stretched me beyond my limits and has molded me into a new person. It is only in looking back that I realize this. Thank you, all, for what you have done for me, though I’m looking forward to going to bed at a reasonable time on Sunday nights.
Go forth, stay well-informed and be good to each other.
Sincerely,
Gabriella DePinho