By 
By: LESLIE LESTINSKY
Staff Writer
@lesliewritenow
What is the most interesting thing you learned during your time with The Preface? This year in particular, I learned leadership is a lot of fun but it also means you need be able to pick up the slack and be able to do everyone’s job. I learned how much I love working with a team. Seeing people grow was great.
What was the biggest learning curve for you as editor? How “on-call” you need to be, and I believe that is a true wake up call to what journalism is.
What are your plans for after graduation? After graduation, I would like to find a 40-hour a week job with benefits and vacation time. I’d like to save up some money and move out west. I’m excited that, once school is over, whatever I do, I’ll be able to give it my full attention. I want to build a career. I feel like I’ve been sacrificing my work for sake of my grades and academics. I’m looking forward to being able to go full force toward a career.
What are you going to miss about the Preface? I will miss the camaraderie, the meetings. We just laugh and have a lot of fun. Every person I’ve worked with is talented and I have at least one fun memory of everyone I work with there. Sometimes it gets a little crazy but we always pull through.
What did you like best about your time at IU South Bend? I got a well-rounded education. I was home schooled growing up so I didn’t come here with maybe the same background as a lot of other students. When I started here, I was very shy and unconfident. I didn’t know how to talk to people. I feel like I really did get a communication degree, and it’s really prepared me to take advantage of my talents and put them to good use. A lot of people hate on IUSB, but I’ve had a great experience. I’ve had so many great professors and made amazing friends. Being part of the Preface is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, it’s such a good starting point in journalism or any publications job in general.
If you’d known then what you know now, is there anything you’d go back and do differently? I would have been more involved. I would have joined more clubs and started one of my own.
What club would you have started? A hip-hop listening club. Every week we would listen to a different album and analyze it.
What aspect of being editor did you enjoy most? Being able to help people. It was really satisfying when people came to me with a question and I was able to give them an answer and help. I think that is one of the fundamental missions of The Preface: to teach people and make the writers better through our work.
Any words of wisdom for our student readers? Don’t let things overwhelm you. Take a walk. Take a five-minute break. It’s just college. It will come to an end, and you will make it through. And always double check before you send something out!
“When I started at The Preface, not a lot of people were reading our paper. I feel like it has come a long way. Next year there will be an app. My job has become so big they split it into two positions for next year. I’ve been at the paper for three years. During that entire time we’ve never missed a deadline. That is a small miracle. I covered a Gloria Kauffman lecture done by S. Bear Berdman. He said it was the best news coverage anyone has ever given one of his lectures and tweeted my story. That was amazing. I’m going to miss working for the Preface and the staff so much. I’ve made some fond memories. I feel the editors taking over for next year are going to do a great job.”
