Victor Barbosa
Staff Writer
It’s hard to believe that my four years here at SC are nearly done. It seems like not too long ago my mom was helping me move into Reed Hall room 507. That was a great floor to get my college experience started and I am so fortunate to have made some friends from that floor that I am now so close with today. Whether it was freshman year in Reed, sophomore year in Inty, junior year in Alumni, or this year in the Suites, each year brought many positives to my life and I was able to meet some great people and even better, make some great friends.
I’ll be honest; I’m not really sure what to write about in this farewell column. I could get all sentimental and go over the many great memories from my college experience, but there will more than likely be the opportunity for that around graduation time. So, I’d like to take this time to share some thanks to some people in particular who made the COSJ and student newspaper experience a special one.
First, thanks to all of the other members of the hard working Springfield College Student staff. Special thanks to all of the editors throughout the years, and the EICs of the last couple of years when I got more involved with the paper. From Justin to Terrence to Gabby, and all of the other editor-in-chiefs of the paper, it’s crazy how much work you guys put in and how many long hours of commitment and dedication you give to the paper, on top of your other classes, internships, etc. Thank you for being so understanding when I maybe was not able to do a story a particular week due to the crazy amount of other work, or other commitments and things going on.
Also, I of course have to thank my professors, especially those in the Communications/Sports Journalism department. To Professor Gildea, Jody and Kyle: thank you for all of the valuable material that I was able to grasp from your classes, meetings, etc. Whether it was Intro to Journalism with Gildea freshman year, Seminar in Mass Communications junior year with Jody, or Radio Journalism this final semester with Kyle, each class was invaluable to me, and I don’t know where I would be in my journalistic career without them. I didn’t even mention a couple of my favorite classes from my four years here (Sports Broadcasting and Internet Journalism with Kyle during junior year).
Of course I also must thank the great faculty advisor for the paper, Marty Dobrow. I honestly have no idea where I would be in terms of my sports journalism pursuits if it wasn’t for Marty. He was not only my professor, not only my internship supervisor, but most importantly, a tremendous mentor. I know that I am very quiet and shy, so I might not say it enough, but I am able to say it through this writing… thank you for everything. You were able to give me some self-confidence in my writing ability that I may not have otherwise had. Starting with my very first newspaper article freshman year (a profile story on men’s gymnast Ty Evans), to the profile on Roscoe Brown this semester, I always appreciated your feedback and praise of my writing.
Finally, thank you to the great friends that I’ve made at Springfield College. Three of my closest friends from SC came from that very same fifth floor in Reed Hall during freshman year. Zack, my former roommate who unfortunately had to transfer after sophomore year, was able to visit a few weekends last year and this year, and I’m very glad that he was able to do so. Also, Nate and Matt, a couple of Springfield Student newspaper alums, were a huge part as to how my college experience turned out. There are countless memories from these past four years that I will always remember and even though you guys graduated early this year, it’s been great chilling a few times this final semester of mine, and we still have graduation to look forward to.
Congrats to the class of 2013, and in particular the COSJ class of 2013.