On Sunday, May 8, my time as a Sinclair student and staff member of the school’s newspaper The Clarion comes to an end. I first enrolled at Sinclair as an official student for the Fall 2019 semester, but have been a part of Sinclair before this because of the College Credit Plus or CCP program. Starting my journey as a CCP student back during the 2016-2017 school year, ultimately led me to enroll at Sinclair full time once I graduated high school in 2019.
During my time in high school, I wrote for our school’s newspaper Northmont Surge, which then changed to Northmont Thunder my senior year. This was also a class students could take all four years as well. The teacher I had for Journalism I, II, and III, helped me develop a love and passion for journalism; so when it was time to declare my major at Sinclair, I chose Multimedia Journalism.
I wouldn’t join The Clarion until I was doing my internship for my degree during the Spring 2021 semester. During this time, I was just learning how to do just about everything. See as an intern, you will most likely be thrown at new tasks, some of which you have never done before, and through that experience, you will learn new skills. Also as an intern, it is a great opportunity to branch out and try new things; remember you usually have a set amount of hours to complete and need to fill the time somehow, so why not do it by learning new things?
During my internship, I helped make our social media more interactive, make some graphics using Canva, write articles, take pictures and videos for our social media, and started our podcast Clarion Chats. I would complete my internship along with the rest of my degree requirements and graduate with my associate’s degree in Multimedia Journalism and a certificate in New Media, but my time at Sinclair and The Clarion was far from over.
I would be at both for another year. During the next couple of months at The Clarion, I would move out of my intern position and into an editor position; starting as the Managing editor during the Fall 2021 semester. Before long, I would have worked my way up to Executive Editor by the Spring 2022 semester, where I would also be a Marketing Intern for The Clarion. My time juggling these two responsibilities was no simple task. Having to make sure I was meeting the requirements for my internship, while also doing my job as an editor, called for some late nights, early mornings, and lots of stress.
I would like to believe I had an impact on The Clarion but didn’t feel like it until spring 2022. During my Marketing Internship, I was able to help rebuild The Clarion’s Business Department, strategize new ways to fundraise and advertise, help get the ball rolling for a newsletter in the future, help grow our social media following, and so much more, but I would say my biggest accomplishment was helping secure $5,000 for The Clarion to use this fall. Still, I feel did I do enough to leave a lasting impact on The Clarion.
My impact as an editor was a bit different. As an Executive Editor, I helped put together two of our highest performing magazines since we started in the Fall 2021 semester. Along with helping reporters meet their fullest potential. No matter how stressed juggling these two may have been, I see nothing but a successful year at The Clarion. Of course, I had help from my fellow editors during the semester. Jeri Hensley, Rachel Rosen, and I were pretty much always in sync, and if we ever got out of sync it didn’t take much for us to get back on track; we were a great team. Both Hensley and Rosen were there to help things move smoothly, along with helping make sure things got done and helping challenge reporters to grow.
That was the main thing about being an editor, I always wanted to challenge the reporters and see them grow as writers, whether they wanted to be a journalist or not, or were journalism majors or not. I wanted to be someone they could trust and lean on when things weren’t okay, and challenge them to be not just the best writers they could be but the best people they could be. I made a lot of great connections and relations during my time at The Clarion, and I am grateful for the opportunities and experiences I had along the way.
Now, I am saying goodbye to The Clarion and those who I have worked with through my year there, along with saying goodbye to my time as a student at Sinclair. Graduating this Spring 2022 semester with a certificate in Digital Marketing Communications completes my education as a Sinclair student.
The past year went by so quickly, that I didn’t realize the impact this job and the people I worked with would have on me. I walked out of The Clarion hoping I also made an impact on it and the people there as well. I know I mentioned earlier some of my biggest accomplishments, including when I won my first ONMA award this year for my Saving Women’s Sports article, but none of that guarantees I left any impact. Why does that matter? I guess I would like to believe that my time at The Clarion helped it be more than just a school newspaper, but a media organization. A media organization with a rebranded podcast that’s now on Spotify and YouTube, fun and interactive social media accounts and website, and so much more.
My time at The Clarion was a great one, and I will carry a lot of what I learned with me through life and my next chapter. Some final words as I wrap this up. To Hensley and Rosen, thank you for your friendship, it means more than you’ll ever know. To our advisor Jessica Graue, or as we know her, Jess, thank you for believing in me and challenging me to be my best. To my co-workers at The Clarion throughout my time there, thank you for the laughs, memories, and support; if you were a reporter while I was editor, please learn what a deadline is, how to answer your Slack messages in a timely manner, and to use your resources, thank you; just kidding with you guys, but seriously not worth the headache.
Anyway, it is time for me to move on to the next chapter, whatever that may be, and thank you for being a part of this chapter with me.
Harley Johnson
Executive Editor / Marketing Intern