Editor-in-Chief (11th-12th):
As Editor-in-Chief, I lead news meetings and suggest stories to staff reporters. I coordinate with my team of editors to resolve issues both with our staff or with stories, and communicate with both my adviser and the staff to make decisions for each issue. After my first semester in this position, I realized I needed to rethink and help address many topics within the newspaper structure.
- Creating a more inclusive team - I spearheaded efforts to make the Cardinal Times more diverse and representative of the community it serves -- both in the newsroom staff and the content we produce. For instance, we started to discuss more about topics such as minority students' representation in the newspaper. When I started with the team it was a primarily male dominated newsroom with very few students of color. I have worked to grow the team with more diversity, and the incoming team succeeding mine has 9 female staff members and 4 male.
- Setting a structure that enabled more student leadership and increased accountability - I initiated and led the first ever Editors Boot Camp for new leaders on the staff, to define SMART goals, specific roles and set an operational plan, including a detailed work-planning process for the coming year. I brought in external advisors to guide us and provide their expertise during this bootcamp. My intent was to create a leader-leader model and a system that allowed for increased transparency and greater accountability. We have implemented this structure for the past year and we saw that we were able to produce much more content and support new channels with this structure in place.
- Maintaining continuity - I wanted to create a process of documentation so future teams had a strong starting point and enabled knowledge transfer and continuity. We now have the first ever Staff Handbook and have an organized a Master Plan where information is stored. I have helped create a 2-year succession plan so the new team has a chance to grow into their roles and continue to recruit new staffers.
- Increased access for a wider audience - Towards these efforts, I have restructured the editorial leadership of the newspaper to place a greater emphasis on digital media initiatives. We now have a podcast, and social media presence as well as increased our digital subscription.
Deputy Editor (11th)
As deputy editor, I shared responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief to make sure that stories came in on time and were well-developed, and I worked to ensure visual elements were created and edited. At the same time, I continued to lead design of the print edition with an eye for strategic integration of stories, visuals and advertisements.
Design Editor (10th)
As the design editor, I designed the layout of every issue of our paper with the Editor-in-Chief. I used both creative skills and organization to plan which stories compliment and fit with each other on a page.
- Changing Layout- As design editor my sophomore year I researched more design layouts from fellow student newspapers and professional papers. I changed our previous templates to have stories begin on the first page to pull readers into the paper, changed the font to become more legible and experimented with more design layouts.
Staff Writer (9th)
As a staff writer I wrote about issues involving my school or around Portland; for example writing about snow days at school or student protests. I interviewed, students, staff, and principals even at other schools.