Senior editors reflect on their time with The Rider News

Former executive editor Jake Tiger

On the first day of Introduction to News Writing, Sept. 8, 2021, my professor informed the students that there was a meeting for The Rider News later that day and each person in the class was required to attend at least once throughout the semester.

Determined and inspired, I decided to apply myself and attend that meeting on the first day of classes, so that I could get that requirement out of the way and never have to worry about The Rider News again.

Thankfully, that mandatory meeting was the beginning of the most important four years of my life — a time that, when I needed it most, imbued me with a confidence and purpose I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

For most of high school, I was pretty sure I wanted to major in journalism; I always loved writing short stories. In elementary school, I made my own comic books about a super-powered hot dog, and in high school, I wrote the sports section for the student newspaper.

However, just before applying to college, I was scared away from journalism by an assignment in my personal economics class where we had to look up the job outlook of our future careers. The journalism outlook read -9%, and I remember being chuckled at by my friends who were interested in more traditional jobs. I ended up committing to Rider as an exercise science major, because I thought it would be fun to be an athletic trainer. That was a terrible, terrible mistake that I would happily repeat.

I did not pass a single class my first semester. I fell flat on my face and I knew something had to change. I could feel that my heart was not in it; exercise science simply was not what I was put on this earth to do. After a spring semester solely dedicated to pulling myself out of academic probation, I decided to turn my focus toward something that I actually cared about.

Since that first meeting in 2021, I have received signs that I made the right decision in choosing to follow my passions, and there is a fire within me that will not allow me to squander this second chance. Because of journalism, and because of Rider, I have undergone a professional and personal transformation that freshman Jake would be really proud of.

It is difficult for me to wrap my head around everything this newspaper has given me. I have met incredible people, written stories with genuine impact, accomplished things I never thought possible and maybe even had a couple dozen or so deadline-related stress dreams. But, alas, that is journalism. 

Thank you to every single person over the years who allowed me to make mistakes, but did not allow me to fail. Thank you to the Rider community for being the perfect place for a lost, anxious student journalist to grow into a more caring, confident and completely new person.

Jake Tiger is a senior journalism Major

Former managing editor Hannah Newman

When I came into college I wanted to write. That was as far as my mind took me. I never saw myself as a journalist but always envisioned myself as a writer. I never saw myself as a photographer but always loved to take photos. After spending the last four years in all different parts of The Rider News, I learned that once you pursue what you love, you can turn it into anything. 

When I walked in the newsroom door my second week of freshman year, the opportunity to create change in my community and hold the power to spread people’s voices, transformed my vision of journalism and became something I knew I needed to do to fulfill my writing passion.

After a year as a contributing writer for features and entertainment and a section editor for two years, my passion only grew stronger and my determination to grow the section into a staple for the community was pivotal. 

I remember proposing the idea to create a monthly series to my co-editor Tristan Leach. They were ecstatic about the idea and had their own contributions on how to implement it. 

The idea of encapsulating  people’s lives and turning them into stories was something I was destined to make reality. There were so many people on this campus that had a story to tell and I felt that there was no such thing as the “right time” to share it. 

We converted every month into a theme and students began to shape our narrative by nominating others for a profile or even themselves. 

I covered students that came to America from war in the Middle East, interviewed alum that survived triple negative breast cancer and highlighted the accomplishments of students, and all the stories have taken my love for journalism to new heights.

As the managing editor in my senior year, getting to lead a staff as passionate about making our mission to the community about ‘finding a voice for you’ instead of ‘finding content for us’ was the highlight of my newsroom experience. 

The people here and the work I have done is what challenged me to try new things, have the confidence to take on more journalistic responsibility and assist in leading the paper to numerous state awards. 

More importantly, I had the opportunity to transform a paper with a 95-year-old history as a printed publication to nearly fully digital weekly issues. 

I am honored to be a part of the immense change that the world has hit not just the newsroom with but all of us as human beings over the years. 

There is no better feeling than leaving college feeling empowered by the lives I have impacted and having people that continue to make me a better person and writer every day. 

Hannah Newman is a senior journalism major