My so-called collegiate life

I'm in my third year at the University of Massachusetts, where I am a Journalism major.

Most of my time is spent working for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. I was recently elected editor in chief for the fall semester, and we have exciting things planned. Originally nervous, I'm now looking forward to it. With a print run of 17,000, the Collegian is the largest daily broadsheet college paper in New England, and was also named the third best Daily Broadsheet paper in the country by the Associated Collegiate Press in the spring of 1996.

I also hope to do a little more writing than I did the previous couple of semesters. I write mostly for news, which is where my writing is the strongest. I'm a big sports fan, but haven't done any sports writing yet -- it's not really my style. Ed/op is an area I'm interested in, but have a lot of difficulty writing. Strangely enough some of my favorite writing has been done for the arts section, such as this review I did of a James Taylor concert, even though it's my least favorite area of the paper.

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Two roads combined

My path to Journalism began in two seemingly unconnected events. The first was I became an avid comics collector. Write this down, as it becomes important later. The other path started because I'm the child of two non-religious Jews. I didn't go to Hebrew School, and consequently didn't become a Bar Mitzvah when I was young, mostly because various friends told me the school wasn't much fun and I had other hobbies at the time (piano lessons, boy scouts, soccer, etc.).

The next stop on my road to Journalism came in my freshman year of high school, in a World Cultures class. I did pretty well in the class, except for one unit -- Judaism. After my poor performance, I decided I wanted to learn more about my culture and religion, and that eventually I would become a bar mitzvah.

Then there was another long break before the next trail marker, which was my oldest cousin's bat mitzvah. Only 17 at the time, I was inspired to get going on my own plans. When I returned home from my relatives' New York home I began taking lessons, setting dates, and in June, the day after I graduated from high school, I finished what I had decided to start four years earlier. The only scary moment came when I almost fell asleep in the middle of the services because I'd stayed up the entire previous night celebrating my graduation.

The next stop came when I arrived at the UMass. I needed money to pay for my comics habit, generally $40-50 a week and working in the Dining Commons didn't seem to be quite my cup of tea. Instead I saw a job advertised in the college paper for Jewish Affairs Editor. Having a slight interest in journalism from being Senior Class Editor of my high school yearbook, and being interested in Judaism still, I applied. My fate was sealed when the then-EIC, Mike Morrissey, and Managing Editor, Darriene Hosley, gave an inexperienced freshman a shot. After a semester with the Collegian, I was hooked. I worked as Jewish Affairs Editor for two years, as well as working on night staff, and helping to rewrite our charter. And now it looks like I'm the EIC, and maybe will get to hire the next version of myself. Strange how things all work out.

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