By Taylor Morrow-

A year and a half ago I decided to revive the Menlo College newspaper. Since then, a lot has been accomplished. The paper quickly became “my project;” in other words, I spent the majority of my free time working on it and see it as my pride and joy. Although I didn’t come to Menlo with the idea of starting a newspaper and getting involved in editing and journalism, I am forever grateful for the opportunity and experience.

The decision to create the paper was easy, but accomplishing it was a completely different story. I started this task by creating the Journalism Club. From there, I moved on to recruiting writers and gaining faculty involvement. By the end of the Spring 2015 semester, we were able to publish articles for the new online newspaper, Menlo Oak Press. Then the 2015-2016 school year began with many hopes and dreams for the paper. Now, at the end of the school year, I am proud to say we accomplished all of them. We created an editing process, set due dates in order to achieve bi-weekly publications, and recruited more writers. Many hours were spent each week on the paper, from meetings, to writing and editing articles, and finally publishing the final pieces. Every individual involved committed a lot of time to the process in order to achieve all that the Menlo Oak Press and Journalism Club have accomplished.

There are so many people I have to say thank you to for all the help and support they have provided me. First off, the most gratitude should be given to the Journalism Club advisor and one of my mentors, Erik Bakke. Without him, the paper would not exist. He was there to help and guide me from the very beginning. He was my sounding board to bounce ideas off and take some of the workload when it became too overwhelming. Erik even helped me figure out WordPress and create the website. My next thank you goes to the librarians, specifically Linda Smith and Cheryl Collins for encouraging me to accomplish the task and providing feedback and information on the previous Menlo College newspapers (which ended in 2009). I also want to thank Andrey Poliakov and Calvin Choi for helping with the website and providing pictures. Thank you Marianne Neuwirth for coming in as another support system and co-advisor this year. Another big thank you to my leadership staff: Vice President and Student Life Editor Maya Mogensen, Treasurer and Entertainment Editor Samantha Newman, Sports Editor Brian Brownfield, and Current Events Editor Seren Mohn. And of course, thank you to everyone who has written an article for the Menlo Oak Press (and a little shout out to Brian who has written an article for every publication date!). Without all of you, the paper would not have happened and would not be where it is today.

Sadly, now it is time for me to say my goodbyes to the Menlo Oak Press and Menlo College. These past four years at Menlo College have been all I could hope for. I came into college scared and a little unsure of myself and what to expect. However, looking back over what I have accomplished and how much I have grown and changed, I will forever be grateful of my time at Menlo College and all of the people that helped guide me. The Menlo Oak Press and the people involved have exceeded my expectations. I am so proud of how far the paper has come and look forward to where it will go in the future. I leave the Menlo Oak Press in the capable hands of Ngozi Harrison and Valentino Stradford. I know they will do great things and help take it to the next level! Goodbye Menlo College, and thank you for everything!