Editor-in-Chief
Springfield College is truly a special place; it is indescribable to those unfamiliar with life on Alden Street. Springfield College is a family that you are immediately welcomed into the first day you step onto campus and a family you will always be a part of when you take your last step at graduation.
We cherish every minute we spend with each other. Whether it is inside or outside of the classroom, on or off the field, or simply a small smile in passing, we will always carry those we meet at Springfield College within a special place inside our hearts.
Unfortunately, members of our SC family can unexpectedly be taken away from us within a blink of an eye.
This summer, the Springfield College community first suffered the heartbreaking loss of women’s soccer standout and friend Kate Richardson ’11.
The fifth-year physical therapy student died tragically when she was hit by a pickup truck while bike riding home from her job at a rafting business in Tennessee.
Then at the start of this school year, we lost another close member of the Springfield College family. Freshman Philip White ‘15 was found unconscious in his room in Massasoit Hall, and the Guam native later passed away at Baystate Medical Center after choosing to take his own life.
These are the kind of tragedies and stories that no journalist wants to ever have to write about. Death hits home for all of us, and if you want to be a true journalist, this is a subject you can’t shy away from. We have a responsibility to cover these stories well.
Yet it is within this responsibility that The Student strives to capture the true strength and resilience of Springfield College. With every tragedy on campus comes another story of the true character of the Springfield spirit.
This year, we will continue providing you, our readers, with both the tragedies and heartwarming stories of Springfield College, just like we have for the last 102 years. We will do our best to keep you informed, up-to-date and, most importantly, aware of what is going on at Springfield College, ranging from campus news and features to the latest in athletics.
We will strive for accuracy like always and we will certainly be open to your ideas and opinions. If there is a story you think should be told, we want to hear from you.
It is an honor and a privilege to return as Editor-in-Chief for this year’s Springfield Student. We have an extremely talented staff returning with the potential to have one of the strongest years in recent memory.
One goal as Editor-in-Chief that I hope to see come to fruition this year is to finally unveil a broad-based Internet presence. It will be a presence that will go one step further than our current online model with our Facebook page. For the last three years, I have witnessed stories go untold because of spacing issues in our print product, and I have lamented our inability to share the heartwarming tales of Springfield College to those beyond Alden Street.
The Internet is a great tool that we have yet to utilize to its fullest as a media organization. However, over this summer, we were able to maximize our abilities with our Springfield Student Newspaper Facebook fan page to capture the resilience of Springfield College following the June 1 tornado.
We were able to report on the Springfield College family rallying together to rebuild and clean up the campus we have come to love, and to work hard to aid the surrounding community, which took a huge hit from the tornado.
Despite being one of the scariest moments on campus in recent memory, the June 1 tornado was one of my proudest moments as Editor-in-Chief of The Springfield Student. Our Facebook fan page had 272,871 page views and 1,222 new likes in a week’s span due to our consistent updates, and it was a great way for us to connect with alumni and students away from campus.
Just last year, we were honored to be selected as the Springfield College Club of the Year at the annual Pride Awards. I believe we got this recognition because of the tremendous work ethic of our staff. In 2011-12, we intend to continue this journalistic workhorse mentality as we strive to have another very successful year in reporting about life at Springfield College.
Justin Felisko may be reached at jfelisko@springfieldcollege.edu