Amy Reynolds, this week’s Campus Celebrity, is the school year’s Editor-in-Chief of The Signal as just a junior! This journalism major got her start at The Signal writing her first article for the school paper as part of an assignment for Professor Lounsberry’s introductory journalism class. However, “I knew going into college,” says Reynolds, “that I wanted to write for the paper.” So she just kept writing, she explained, in the hopes that it would lead to more for her at The Signal.
More writing led to her involvement at the paper as the features editor during her sophomore year. She explained that the then-managing editor convinced her to run for that position. “It didn’t take much convincing,” she says. “I knew that I’d wanted to move up to a higher position eventually, but right then I wasn’t quite sure I was ready.”
Being editor-in-chief as just a junior is only difficult for Reynolds because she hasn’t had as much experience as past editors. She also hasn’t been able to take as many journalism classes as editors have in the past. However, Reynolds explains, “because I’m only a junior, I’ll be EIC in the spring too. By then I’ll have a better grasp on running the organization and things will run more smoothly.”
This year, Reynolds plans to gain more writers for The Signal. “There are 100 journalism majors here at the College,” she said, “and many of them don’t write for The Signal, which I think is pretty sad.” Last year, the paper won ten awards through the New Jersey Press Foundation’s College Newspaper Contest. “I’d definitely like to match or exceed that number this year,” says Reynolds. She also explained that The Signal is looking to write more investigative stories this year. “We’re always trying to get more readers, so we’re trying to write more interesting stories to entice them,” she says.
Overall, Reynolds’ favorite part of the paper is the people she works with in her organization. “They’re a very interesting, and sometimes a pretty strange group of people, but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun if they were boring,” she says. Staying up until four a.m. every week has its perks, according to Reynolds, because she has really bonded and created inside jokes with these people while they work on the coming week’s paper. “At times it can be really stressful, and staying up till four in the morning every week is definitely exhausting,” explains Reynolds, “but for me, it’s been totally worth it.”