Special Edition Fall 2021: Editor's Letter

What a fantastic semester we’ve had! I think we speak for many people when we say that we're thrilled to be back in person. Because of the events in the most recent few years, it was nice to have some sense of “normalcy” back in our lives as students.

Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Mandy Hay ‘22 (English and Communication Studies) and Lauren Trowbridge ‘24 (English and Interpreting), editors of The Wheel. Coming back to the student news sphere face-to-face has been an adjustment for everyone. Though we release biweekly online editions, we have not created a printed special edition in over two years.

So, instead of focusing on the disadvantages of our lack of print knowledge, we chose to focus on the benefits. With a staff that has never created a print edition, we viewed this year as an opportunity to make The Wheel into something that is polished and professional, but also something that is irrevocably OURS.

Our focus for this semester was to get back into the swing of things by putting out several biweekly online editions throughout the semester and get back to our normal operations pre-pandemic. However, we chose to make some changes as well. 

First, we started an initiative to be more well-rounded and inclusive in our writing style, but also by focusing on different topics for articles. Something that has been noticeably lacking in past editions was the focus on athletics, so Mandy met with Athletic Director Eric Stacey and Lindsay Madryga, the sports information director, in order to make a plan on how athletics can team up with The Wheel. We have been pushing to have at least one article about sports for each edition since having these conversations.

Additionally, we have always struggled with staffing The Wheel, namely because of our budget. However, we had tons of interest this semester, so we added another position to our staff: the editorial intern. Editorial interns contribute one article to the special edition as opposed to the two required of our staff writers, and contribute articles to any online editions as they see fit as opposed to having the less flexible deadlines and due dates of our staff writers. This difference in workload allows more people to dip their toes into journalism without worrying about being overloaded. Editorial interns were added because we wanted to capture all the talent we could but also be able to train and workshop with interns to get them ready for the staff writer position eventually.

Our very own advisor, Andy Steiner, has been an incredibly helpful expert resource for us throughout the semester, especially in regards to training our interns. Because she is a working journalist, Andy has workshopped with our staff on different journalism topics, such as how to write a good headline and best practices for interviewing sources. You can check out Andy’s work on her website: andysteiner.com.

As you may be able to tell, we have been doing a lot of reflecting lately一 reflecting on the past two years, reflecting on how we can refine student news here at St. Kate’s, and just reflecting on the history of St. Kate’s and The Wheel in general. As avid Wheel readers may know, each one of our special editions is themed. Because we have been doing a lot of reflecting一and our past couple of special editions were very future-focused一we decided to focus on The Wheel’s past and dive into the history of student news at St. Kate’s.

So, without further ado, we are proud to present our special edition for the Fall 2021 semester, which features not only our amazing staff writers, but all of our new and wonderful editorial interns! Take a look back with us in The Reflective Wheel: A Look into St. Kate’s Past.