Our Voice
So you may have noticed that The Colonnade hasn’t been on the newsstands much lately. Well, we hope you noticed.
Anyways, the reason for our absence last week was because of spring break. And the week before that, most of the editorial staff was in New York City for a leadership conference.
Traveling to a modern, cultural hub like that of New York City tends to light a creative lamp within people. Such a lamp was certainly sparked to life when The Colonnade’s 2008-09 editorial staff attended the Collegiate Media Advisors conference there a few weeks ago.
Trips like these usually serve as a sort of elevated-level classroom in which students engage in cutting edge technology lessons with experts in the field acting as teachers. Representatives from major publications and companies such as The Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press were present teaching, lending professional advice, offering critical feedback and providing a glimpse into the big world of print media.
The rising editorial staff was given the unique opportunity to go through a journalism boot-camp of sorts-attending informative sessions with professionals, interacting with other student media staff from other colleges and listening to the perspectives of key-note speakers such as Valerie Plame, a former CIA operative who has recently become well-known in the media.
Some lessons taught leadership. Some taught writing and photography skills. Some taught layout and design, and others taught salesmanship. Whatever the session may have been about, we were sure to take something back from it for The Colonnade.
When not in sessions or being involved in various CMA conference happenings, the staff found time to bond as a working team and kick around creative ideas for the following year’s editions of The Colonnade.
The group was also able to roam the asphalt jungle in the evenings, exposing many new and old members of the staff to a completely different way of life. Undisputedly, New York City differs greatly from the slow and quiet Southern setting of Milledgeville. Such trips are helpful in reminding the staff that outside of their small college town exists a loud and bustling world just waiting to be written about and photographed.
The urge to be out conquering that hectic world gets stronger and the drive to elevate The Colonnade to a status rivaling that of The New York Times, or more realistically The Macon Telegraph, now burns within each member of the staff. What we must now do is take that burning want as well as the knowledge taken from the New York conference and turn it into reality. That is just what The Colonnade fall 2008 staff plan to do for the rest of this year and certainly for next year. Hopefully our week’s absence will inspire greatness in each new Colonnade member for years to come.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 4 2008. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice.
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