As the Fall 2010 semester continues to get closer and closer, we suggest UH students – incoming freshmen and super seniors alike – get involved on-campus, and there’s no better place to do that than at The Daily Cougar.
Students can learn a lot if they are involved in our publication, and you don’t even have to be a journalism student, either.
“Newspapers aren’t what you’d call a growth industry,” Michael Koretzky said in a recent Huffington Post article. “These days, it’s easier to land a job on the Deepwater Horizon than in a newsroom. So I tell every student I meet at Florida Atlantic University: Work hard at the University Press, and I promise you a job in almost any other industry.”
Yes, you’ll learn how to hone your skills as a writer, which is a much-needed and overlooked skill in college these days, but you’ll also deal with so much more as a writer or a copy editor or, assuming you stay involved, an editor.
The Daily Cougar is the only on-campus organization that puts out a finished product every day. Period. Here, students manage deadlines, learn how to interview and have a chance to report on what they believe is important at our University.
“The editor in chief has to contend with replacing writers, photographers and designers who just graduated and training the newcomers while publishing a paper at the same time… [and] decides what gets covered and what doesn’t, writes stories and columns, placates irate readers and soothes heated staff conflicts that inevitably arise on deadline,” Koretzky said.
Oftentimes, members of the editorial board will hear students complaining about administration, fees, or the University as a whole, and if you work for us, you’ll have the opportunity to find out firsthand from administrators why things are the way they are.
So come on; submit an application. The opportunities are endless, not only for advancement here, but in the real world. So if you’re curious, don’t be; just come into our offices and find yourself a beat (or set up a blog on our Web site) and doors you never thought would open will.
And your mom would love to see your name in the school newspaper. Really, she would. You know it’s true.
