I find the idea of a Senior 30 somewhat odd. 1,000 words or less to sum up four years of my life is not nearly long enough to describe my time at The University Star or thank the endless amount of people that deserve recognition for helping me on my journey. Nevertheless, before the end of my farewell, I will hope to accomplish those two things.
I’ll start on April 2, 2022, the day I learned that I had earned the position of Editor-in-Chief and funnily enough, my birthday. When I received the news, I was thrilled but understandably nervous. I knew the issues the Star faced, and I knew I couldn’t solve them alone. I immediately hired the talented Sarah Hernandez, the former life and arts editor, and a much better copy editor than myself to be The Star’s managing editor.
The most pressing issue at the time was creating a culture in the newsroom and finding a way to make brutal 12-hour-long Monday production days something that editors and staff would look forward to. The paper’s adviser, and someone I now call a friend, Laura Krantz, arranged Camp Star. A three-day camping trip with editors where we would workshop ideas about the paper, be visited by guest speakers, spend time together learning our strengths and weaknesses and more than once getting stuck in shallow waters in kayaks. 
When we returned to the newsroom, I made attending in-person meetings mandatory. I recommended that staff study and hang out in the newsroom even if they weren’t doing anything work-related. We also got dinner and drinks and watched sports and movies together. The culture we had created reached its culmination a few weeks ago at the TIPA journalism conference. Something that could have been a regular work event felt like the Super Bowl, with editors and staff working together like a well-oiled machine.
Throughout the year not everything I tried, or my team tried, necessarily worked. One aspect of student journalism that I love, and support, is the freedom to experiment. I like the idea of having the freedom to try new things and if they work, great, but if not try something else until it does. On the print edition, I experimented with more ideas that didn’t work than did and encouraged editors not to be afraid to try new things. 
A successful goal of mine was to streamline production days. Before I was Editor-in-Chief, Monday production was a time-consuming 12-hour affair, where editors and reporters would turn stories into be edited and they would be set on pages by one person, the design editor. The design editor would then sit at their desk and lay out every single page. This led to burnout and an unnecessary bottleneck in production. The solution was to have editors learn how to design their own pages thus removing the bottleneck. The role of design editor, currently held by the excellent Sarah Manning, works as a creative designer, designing the front page with the extra time helping other editors to reach their creative goals for each page. 
As an editorial board, we wrote main point editorials almost monthly that expressed our opinions on controversial national issues and related them to our local audience. The editorials covered topics such as gun violence, protecting the first amendment, the importance of student’s voices and many more. I’m proud of our main points and the conversation they stirred among our readers.
I would like to list a few people at the Star that helped me and the paper during my years at the Trinity building and The University Star. Thank you, Laura Krantz, Caitlin Mitchell, Brianna Benitez, Jaden Edison, Jakob Rodriguez, Daniel Weeks, Sarah Hernandez, Nichaela Shaheen, Carson Weaver, Dillion Strine, Marisa Nunez, Sarah Manning, Elle Gangi, Vanessa Buentello, Zaria Jackson, Jeffrey Halfen and Madelyn Weirich. There are dozens more people that need to be thanked including former and current staff and my family and friends that helped me during my time as Editor-in-Chief.
I am immensely proud of my team and the years we spent together making The University Star one of the best student publications in the country. I am sad to say goodbye, but I am excited for what’s ahead for myself and my team.