By Joseph Abraham, Editor-in-Chief

Published in print on Apr.15, 2015

In August 2011, I was an awkward freshman.  I was still trying to get used to this thing called college, but the one thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to be a journalist. After taking a few weeks to adjust, I located The Carolinian office and walked inside. I was met by then Publisher Casey Mann. I introduced myself and told her that I wanted to write sports for The Carolinian.

After completing the necessary steps, I was selected to join the sports staff. It was my first major achievement in college. The paper was happy that someone had an interest in covering sports— apparently that’s hard to find on campus.

It was all history at that point. Besides WUAG 103.1FM, The Carolinian is the only other student organization that I have participated in. I was a sports writer for a year and a half, sports editor for the same amount of time, and have spent this year as editor-in-chief. While I cannot say everything has gone as I envisioned, I can proudly say that I have given this newspaper my all.

I started out green, as most inspiring journalists do. I owe a lot to my past sports editors. Calvin Walters was my first sports editor, and while I held a small grudge that he once changed my most creative headline of all-time, “A reason to Suh?” which was written following Ndamukong Suh’s stomp to a Green Bay Packers player that Thanksgiving, I now understand, four years later, why it was changed to something more serious.

Ian Foster helped me grow a lot as a reporter and interviewer, teaching me the right questions to ask. He has also served as a friend and mentor to this day. Stuart Barefoot, a former sports director of WUAG and sports reporter for The Carolinian is also a great friend and mentor. Any sports fan should check out Ian and Stuart’s respective podcasts (Ian is apart of Slash MLS, and Stuart hosts The Small League podcast).

My next thanks is to Tristan Munchel. Serving as editor-in-chief during my last year of being sports editor, he pushed me to get better with AP rules and to be a better designer in Adobe InDesign. While you may not always like how he would offer criticism, I always appreciated his honesty, and it helped me grow immensely.

I would also like to thank every member of the editorial board this year for their patience, hard work and dedication.

I owe a lot to this newspaper. It helped me get an internship, as well as mold my journalistic skills. But more importantly, it gave this once awkward freshman a direction, and reaffirmed his belief that journalism is his passion.

I now leave the paper in the capable hands of my successor Emily Bruzzo, and Natalie King, our new Publisher. While I will no longer call Elliott University Center Room 236 home, I will always be available if they need me.

The torch has now officially been passed, and I cannot wait to see all that they will accomplish next year.