I want to first thank everyone who voted me into the position and trusted me to take over this role. I would like to also thank Tori Everson and Conor Chapman for their guidance and dedication to Clarion. They have enacted great change within this club to assure it continues to give a voice to the students.

I am currently the opinions editor, and I am in the process of transitioning into Editor-in-Chief and running the entire newspaper as head of the operation. My job involves giving college students a voice on campus. I work with writers every week to help report on stories that need to be heard.

My own work involves promoting human rights issues. I often cover and publish articles on serious topics including racism, discrimination, gender inequalities, immigration issues and international issues (refugees, climate change, etc.). I saw the opinions section grow like never before as I let writers flourish and let their creative freedom take over. I enjoyed meeting with writers for coffee outside of the Clarion and aiding them in writing their first articles. Their excitement for writing truly amazed me. 

I truly believe that journalism is powerful and can be used as a form of activism to promote greater change in our society. That is why I tend to cover complex topics in my published articles. Giving people a voice and raising awareness on racial issues has always been a goal of mine. 

This is why my main goal in this position is to create a more welcoming environment by promoting equity and diversity and creating two new sections, one in science and one for diversity. I am launching a diversity and equity research project that will turn into its own section. This will involve adding new roles such as a diversity editor and a diversity liaison. The liaison will be in charge of connecting the Clarion to other organizations on campus with an emphasis on affinity groups. 

My hope for the project is to promote different multimedia projects such as podcasts, broadcasting and editorial work on racial inequalities and give a voice to minorities on campus. 

This leads me to my second goal in pushing for the Clarion to get with the times and incorporate different multimedia works. Not everyone’s skills are in editorial work and I want the organization to be more inclusive and welcoming to students who would like to submit any type of work. This includes digital art, poetry, podcast, broadcasting, etc. 

Journalism impacts our daily lives and can be used as a tool in any career field. I want to aim at having it be more impactful in the lives of students and other members of our community on campus. I have several goals to work towards this. The two mentioned above are the main ones. 

I look forward to working with my new staff and am excited to have Aubrey Cox as my Executive Editor. He has shown great initiative so far and has been greatly supportive. I would like to also thank Professor Lynn Clark for believing in me and my diversity project. Special shout out to Andrew Matranga, our faculty advisor, who sometimes may not be aware of his impact and has been my inspiration for prompting multimedia work within the Clarion.

I am excited about this new role and confident I will meet its responsibilities and create much-needed change in the Clarion. Looking forward to working with several groups and individuals along this journey. 

Special thank you to our current staff Toni, Peter, Connor, Ana, Aubrey, Megan, Nehal and Ambriel, our future staff, Matthew, Ana Júlia and Henry, for all their hard work. Thank you to all of our contributing writers.

Ana Ortega

Future Editor-in-Chief