50 Reasons Why: Working at a College Newspaper is Worth It

29 Friday Apr 2011

There is nothing like seeing your name in a byline, whether it’s in print or online.
Meet Lena, Michael, Mary Elizabeth, Ben and Kelli – some of the amazing people I work with on The Appalachian’s Lifestyles desk.
You’ll learn how to network as you build source relationships.
You can’t learn journalism without practicing journalism.
You’ll get to know people, and not just in a superficial way. You’ll really know them.
There will be conflict, and you’ll learn how to deal with it in a professional way.
You’ll do something, make something, be a part of something that is bigger than you. Continue reading →

Thoughts on life and ‘Putnam County’ from a spelling bee failure

20 Wednesday Apr 2011

I did not win the 2000 South Carolina State Spelling Bee. I lost to a home schooled kid who asked for a definition and a use-it-in-a-sentence-please for every single word. He went to Washington D.C. and I went back to my fifth grade classroom, where I kept my eyes firmly focused on the grainy gray carpet as a bunch of catty ten-year-old voices asked, “Why didn’t you win?”

“Exonerate” is the word I spelled wrong to lose the 2000 South Carolina State Spelling Bee. I still hate it & I will never, ever use it in a sentence.

I haven’t thought about spelling bees in a long time. But when I wrote a preview of Appalachian’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” I knew I was going. The whole spelling bee thing is crazy, honestly. It’s a bunch of adults putting a bunch of kids onstage and telling them that if they miss one letter they lose. Try dealing with that in an emotionally stable way at 10 years old.

I wanted to see if “Putnam County” got it right. And in a lot of ways, it did. Here are five things the production – a Tony winner described by The Washington Post as “a letter-perfect sendup” – understood about spelling bees (and life). Continue reading →

“I’m one of the fortunate few to do what I do.”

10 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by Meghan Frick in Work

≈ 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, I had 30 minutes to write an opinion article.

This doesn’t happen to me too often. I write all the time, but rarely on a deadline tighter than 24 hours. It was the Sunday after spring break, though, and the opinion I’d signed up for had slipped my mind entirely.

So when I checked my voicemail and heard one of our associate editors’ voices wondering patiently where my opinion was, the panic kicked in. Thankfully, I was quickly able to find the kind of topic that makes opinion writing easy – a topic that you’re solidly, certainly upset about. Continue reading →