Gaining new perspective

SJI Class participates in Missourian newsroom meeting.

Until today (Monday) I lost sight of the fact that it’s not typical for a college student to be constantly texting, joking around with and discussing word choice with a man in his 60s. As a student at Missouri, I come into the Columbia Missourian newsroom every day to talk to and hang out with my sports editor/professor, Greg Bowers. And when I’m not in the newsroom, we are often still communicating via text. Seeing my SJI classmates' interest in a concept like the Missourian — a student-staffed, faculty-run newspaper operated as part of the Missouri School of Journalism — made me remember the uniqueness of my college program. I think some of them were impressed. Others at least seemed intrigued. I’ve learned so much working at the Missourian. And while I’ve wondered many times how my college experience would be different, both socially and intellectually, if I’d worked at a traditional campus newspaper throughout college, I would never pick another school. And now I'm enjoying sharing Columbia and MU with students from around the country this week. -- Aaron Reiss