Ashley Yenick ’14, Copy Editor
Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, I would write creative short stories about anything—I just wanted to write something. When I had gotten to high school, English became my favorite subject and I immersed myself into the world of writing. I began to obsess on new information and new technology that I could find. Years later (and many short stories later), I decided to feed my passion further by becoming a staff writer for two different websites: University Chic and Sweet Lemon Magazine. However, I saw a window of opportunity last year when I received an email to join The Beacon. 
After interviews were conducted for new positions on The Beacon, I received an email that I was chosen to become Copy Editor of The Beacon for the 2013-2014 school year. I can’t begin to describe the amazing experience and the amount of gratitude I have to have been able to serve as an editor this year. I learned so much about the world of writing, newspapers, and how much effort goes into making a successful newspaper. I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity to write and edit for The Beacon. I’ll never forget all of the memories that we made as an editorial team travelling to San Diego and Los Angeles to attend the Associated Collegiate Press National College Journalism Convention.
This quote by Ray Bradbury encapsulates everything that I love about reading and writing:
“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”–Ray Bradbury
Bradbury’s quote describes what it means to be a writer. Writing everyday putting your nose to the grindstone investigating stories and fact-checking makes you appreciate every article that you write and edit even more. Being crazy for writing is a good kind of crazy. When I write, it’s like a rush of adrenaline—it’s like creating a new masterpiece that you get to showcase to an audience that they get to see/hear for the first time.
I’m incredibly grateful to have been able to write for The Beacon this year and to have been an editor. I’ll take this experience and insight that I’ve learned with me as I travel into the next stage of my career into the real world. Thank you to the editors, Jim Chiavelli our adjunct professor, writers, and readers of The Beacon for making the newspaper so awesome.
