Katie Barsevich
Copy Editor
Fall of senior year seems like a late time to join any sort of club or organization on a college campus.
Though The Springfield Student had been operating smoothly for many, many semesters and years before I was asked to join as copy editor, I felt warmly welcomed into the well-established core of The Student’s staff.
Late Wednesday nights became a regular for me last fall during my student-teaching pre-practicums as I sleepily corrected commas and standardized capitalization.
A copy editor’s role is very much a behind-the-scenes job. I learned about the paste-up process from five of our college’s unsung heroes: Gabby DeMarchi, Alison Dombroski, Joe Brown, Terrence Payne and Jimmy Kelley. A newspaper office may not seem like the obvious place for an aspiring middle school English teacher, but I happily found the Wednesday night round-ups with the COSJ gang entertaining (in the form of staff banter) and informative (getting the news of campus before its release to the world). I enjoyed being an aid to a critical piece of our college’s media publications and was always impressed with the continually outstanding efforts the core group of staff dedicated.
Gabby, I’m so proud of the leader you’ve become, and I’m even prouder to call you my best friend. Alison, you are amazing at what you do, and The Alden Street Review wouldn’t look half as pretty if it wasn’t for your helpful assistance. Terrence, the tenacity of your ranting and raving has had me laughing since College Writing. Jimmy, I admire your dedication to the sports pages that you made your own. Joe, I wish you the best of luck next year, and I have confidence in your leadership. I’m proud to have worked with this staff of students who, with the guidance of our faculty, developed their foundation of journalism skills every week.
The quality of our Springfield Student is also a testament to the caliber of the students and faculty in and who are involved in our Humanities Department.
I have had the pleasure during my four years here to work in a wide range of capacities with great people. In addition to my teaching experiences through the Education Department, many of my proudest accomplishments at Springfield College originate in the Humanities Department, including my leadership role for The Alden Street Review, presenting at Scholars in Action Day and then traveling to Portland, Oregon to present at the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society; being invited to Honduras as an enriching part of my Social Justice minor, taking literature and culture courses during my semester abroad in Ireland, and building relationships with professors and fellow students, among many others.
I would love to use this space to give some much-deserved shout outs to all of the people who have helped me grow these past four years as a student and person, but I’m blessed to say that the list is too long to put here.
I sincerely look forward to continuing to build on the skills and relationships I’ve built in the Humanities and Education Departments at Springfield College, knowing that my life is so much happier having been surrounded by truly wonderful people.