I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that helped make my journey at Her Campus possible.
Photo by Giana Cangemi Photography
My journey with the organization Her Campus started early. I was a junior or senior in high school when I found out about the magazine. I was in the journalism program at my high school when I first learned my love for the field. One day, I happened upon the Her Campus site by accident. I instantly fell in love. These girls were talking about all the things I wanted to read and even write myself! I kept going through the website until I learned that there were different chapters and teams of girls who wrote for Her Campus at major universities all over the world!
After the long and crazy exhausting process of applying to colleges, I found out that I was accepted into the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. I was very excited because that is where I wanted to spend my next four years. It was a perfect distance away from home (far enough so that the parents wouldn’t sneak up on me out of the blue, but close enough to visit whenever I wanted). Best of all was that there was a chapter of Her Campus established there! I was completely stoked to join when I started school there fall of 2013.
I have had the wonderful opportunity to be a writer, editor, Social Media Director, Editor-in-Chief, President, and Campus Correspondent of our Her Campus at USFSP chapter. Over my three and a half years with the organization, I have been able to publish over 60 articles on our website. Her Campus even gave me the life changing opportunity of going to their Her Conference this past July in New York City! I spent two days with some of the most successful women in the media business and I learned more than I could imagine. Not to mention all the lifelong friends I made while I was there.
I wanted to thank my amazing team for always supporting me through thick and thin. My road to becoming the Campus Correspondent for our chapter was not an easy one. Learning practically overnight how to manage a team of writers and content producers was a little bit trickier than I had imagined, but you guys always had my back. You were there willing to help out even if it wasn’t exactly in your job description because you saw when I needed help and I will always be grateful for that. I am proud of the work that we have put together over the past few years. We even did some charity work around our community together. We were more than just teammates, we were friends and I thank you so much for that. I will forever miss our Monday meetings where we would just sit and talk about dogs, YouTube, and Gilmore Girls (after the business was taken care of, of course!).
I also wanted to thank the creators of Her Campus for making this fantastic organization where I have truly learned so much. I have become a better communicator and media professional because of all the opportunities that you have created for me. This organization has an amazing future ahead all because of you!
Last but not least, I wanted to thank the readers. None of this would be possible without you. It wouldn’t make any sense for us to be creating content if no one was willing to read it!
Photo by Giana Cangemi Photography
Just like that, I’m done. I am graduating from USFSP on December 11th, 2016 and I am excited to see where life takes me. But I am not done with my education yet! I am starting my master’s degree online here at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg in the Digital Journalism and Design in January where I will continue to learn more about digital media. This is the next step in my career and I couldn’t be any more thrilled about it.
Farewell Her Campus!
HCXOXO for the last time…
Alana Long