The first time you saw my name was likely in a byline.

Next to that would have been a fancy title — news editor, managing editor or editor-in-chief. 

I am absolutely humbled to have held some of the top positions at The Sun. From covering vandalism to research cuts to protests to the Student Assembly, I am deeply gratified to have written over 100 articles.

Yet after penning piece after piece, talking to hundreds of sources and editing out thousands of Oxford commas, what is most remarkable to me is not how special this work is, but, in fact, just how accessible and applicable it is.

Over the past decade, legacy media has declined in influence and trust, replaced by a decentralized and democratized media sphere. With an iPhone in your pocket, you can record and transcribe an interview, photograph and videotape uncensored scenes and disseminate live updates to a global audience as they occur. 

As student journalists, we live at the intersection of these two media spheres: trained on traditional journalism practices and institutional knowledge, while simultaneously reporting on our peers with relatively limited resources. We experience the very issues and tensions we capture on our pages, and work to document the truth in the minutes we can squeeze in between classes — without care for salary or awards. 

I seek to practice the thorough interviewing and fact-checking evident in the legacy media coverage that recently exposed Cesar Chavez’s sexual abuse allegations and traced inconsistent dialogue surrounding the Iran war.

And yet, I am equally inspired by Darnella Frazier, who bravely recorded the viral video documenting police officer Derek Chauvin’s choking of George Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds. The then-17-year-old's cellphone footage became key evidence in Chauvin’s trial for Floyd’s death.

I am moved by the Minneapolis bystanders who captured the scenes preceding Alex Pretti’s untimely death at the hands of Border Patrol agents. While Kristi Noem told the nation that........

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