Since childhood, Katie Taylor always wrote. Since her first year at Miami, she gave The Miami Student her voice as a contributing writer, and now as a junior, she’s leading the way as the paper’s Editor-in-Chief. Keep reading to find out more about this week’s campus celeb!
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Name: Katie Taylor
Year: Junior
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Major/minor: Journalism and Psychology, although I hope to switch to a double major in Journalism and Interactive Media Studies
Favorite Paper to read: New York Times and Yahoo News for online reading
Fun fact: Played trumpet in middle school band
Years on Miami Student:Â This is the start of my third year. I began as a contributing writer the end of my freshman year.
Favorite story ever written:Â A profile on Ricardo Azereach, who is the head director of Miami’s symphony orchestra.
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HC: How did you obtain the position of Editor-in-Chief?
KT: I started freshman year and worked my way up. I ended up in the news room my sophomore year and then moved up to Editor-in-Chief this year once our previous EIC had stepped down at the beginning of this year. It was unofficial for a while.
HC: How does it feel to be the Editor-In-Chief?
KT: It’s a huge amount of work and initially I found myself more of a writer, but my staff is great and we work together to take the paper where it needs to be and we make the changes that need to be made.
HC: What are your favorite parts about being EIC?
KT: My favorite part is journalism in general because you get to meet so many interesting people while learning a little bit about everything, As for being an EIC, it’s nice to be a part of making something so great and being a part of the Miami community.
HC: What are some stressful aspects of your position?
KT: The Miami Student is so public, so the reactions we get from the public is the most stressful. I want to put out a paper that people find interesting. It’s hard hearing negative responses from people. At times, they don’t understand how difficult it can be running a student organization.  I’m trying to make the paper as good as it can be.
HC: What are essential traits of being a good EIC?
KT: You need to know and learn when to be the staff’s friend and when to push them to make things happen. You need to learn how to make the hard decisions. However, if you make a good or bad choice, that’s on you so decision-making plays a big part of the job.
HC: How did you get interested in writing?
KT: I was always decent (at writing). When I was younger, I wrote stories and in high school I did creative writing. My dad urged me to take a journalistic writing class in high school and I ended up liking it a lot. After I took that class, I knew what I wanted to do after high school.
HC: What type of writing have you done in the past?
KT: Creative writing and my dad pushed me toward journalistic writing. I was also on my high school newspaper.
HC: Any other interests on campus?
KT: I really like horseback riding so if I have time, I would love to get back into that in the future. I also like going to sporting events. I participated in a 1st annual creative writing event, where someone writes a piece and then gets to say it on stage. I like going back to my creative writing roots.
HC: What is your overall goal with The Miami Student?
KT: I really just want the paper to be a steady source of news. I want people to read our paper between classes and always have an outlet of accurate news. I also want more online content every day with other multimedia content, and new ways to incorporate new web content in general. One of (our) major goals is to promote discussion among the community. Recently, we’ve had a lot of people talk on Facebook, which is great. I want more people to get involved.
HC: Do you plan on pursuing a career with journalism after college?
KT: Honestly, I’m not 100 percent sure what I want to do after college, but I do know what I love to do which is writing and journalism in general. I would love to incorporate web design in my career. I just want to keep travelling, writing, and meeting interesting people.