When I was finally a “mature” high school student, I realized I needed to focus on finding a more realistic career for my future. My first thought was that I could be a journalist, but with another swift change of the mind, I decided I might be a good school counselor. Then I thought maybe I was well-suited to become a teacher. In the mix of all this, I also considered Business and Human Relations.

In the end, I based my college search on the assumption that I would study either Secondary Education or Psychology. As it turns out, I wound up studying neither. In fact, my decision making skills (at this particular point in my life) were so poor that I enrolled at Medaille as an Undecided major. That category pretty much summed it up. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. However, it wasn’t that I didn’t have options; it was that I had too many.

As is protocol for Undecided majors, I took some general courses and mixed in some courses from departments I thought I may have been interested in. On a whim, I took a Media Promotion class. It was suggested to me by my adviser, so I gave it a shot. It was also in my first semester that I decided to join the Perspective, Medaille’s student run newspaper. I enjoyed writing and had some experience at my high school’s newspaper, so I figured, why not?

At the end of my freshman year, I declared as a Communications major. Lisa Murphy and the students at the Perspective had completely sold me. I really enjoyed what I was doing, and as a result, I was ready to commit to a major that I had never even really considered before that time.

Since then, everything that I have done has only verified my decision to become a Communications major. Getting involved is the single most important thing that I could have done to make my decision, and I would encourage any incoming freshman or even current student to explore extracurricular activities that you might enjoy and/or excel at. Don’t rule anything out. You never know what you might fall into and end up following as a career path.

At the halfway point of my college career, I have only experienced more and more surprises concerning what my talents are and what kind of job I would like after graduation. Even within the field of Communications, I have at times felt I should become a journalist, an editor, and now, I have even discovered that I love the lay-out aspect of print publications. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that an open mind is one of the most important aspects to uncovering just what it is you really want to be when you grow up.

~Megan Fitzgerald

“Being named editor is a huge honor to me! I’ve put a lot of hard work into the paper over the past year and a half and really enjoy what I do,” Witherow said. “It’s going to be hard in the footsteps of two great editors before me, Lisa [Cialfi] and Summer, but I think I can bring some new things to the table and hopefully make the paper even better.

Witherow follows Lisa Cialfi and Summer Gematti who has run the paper the past two school years respectively. He plans on building off the success the paper has had the past two years.

“Over the past 2 years we’ve really become a staple in the Medaille community and I look to keep that going all through next year. There might be some minor tweaks here and there but overall I want to just keep the Perspective going on the track it’s on now, and that is to keep the students informed and to be kind of a second voice of the students to the faculty and staff,” Witherow said.

Witherow calls his a sports freak but he doesn’t plan on letting his love for sport, get in the way of his responsibilities as editor.

“Sports will stay about the same as it is now. The athletic department and teams are getting better and we recognize this, however, we don’t have as many teams as a lot of schools and it’s not as big here as in other schools so for right now it will stay about four pages. However, as we do with playoffs and NCAA tournaments, we will continue to send out sports extra pages via e-mail to the students and faculty as well as keep everyone up to date on the latest on conference championships, ECAC tournaments and NCAA tournaments.”

Next year should be a good year for the newspaper as it continues to go in the same direction as it has the past two years.

“The Perspective staff decided to put together a magazine because we wanted to put out another publication that the college would enjoy. We thought a magazine was a great idea. We wanted to make sure that the content of the magazine would appeal to a wide audience. We wanted everyone on campus to be able to pick up the magazine and find an article they could relate to and enjoy,” Executive Editor Summer Gemmati said.

It was a collaborative idea from everyone in the paper. We saw other school newspapers did it and thought it would be a fun project. It was all we thought it was going to be and more, a lot more,” Features Editor, James Witherow said.

A handful of students on the Perspective staff were also on the staff of INcite. For editorial positions on the magazine, interviews were held.

The magazine will continue next year, and most likely come out next Spring. Eventually the staff would like to publish the magazine once each semester according to Gemmati.

The rest of the magazine staff consisted of Lisa Murphy who was the adviser, Megan Fitzgerald who was the editor-in-chief, Nick Calandra was photo director James Witherow, Stephanie Gemmati and Chris Musial were features editors.

“I did the magazine because I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the newspaper. The paper is very strict on rules and structure and a magazine you can be a lot more creative and explore more with layout and writing. I just thought it would be a nice change up from the usual and thats what it was, and it came out great,” Witherow said.

“It is definitely going to continue next year, Megan Fitzgerald is going to be the Editor in Chief of the Magazine and I have no doubt that with all she put into it this year, it’s going to be even better next year! We are hoping that it will eventually come out every semester but for right now it’s going to be a once a year thing,” Witherow said.

“I heard that a lot of people on campus were really impressed with the magazine and I am hopeful that the entire campus was able to find an article or two that they were really interested in considering that the main reason we choice such a range of articles was to appeal to a wide audience base,” Gemmati said.

Summer Gemmati was the editor of the Medaille College newspaper this year, The Perspective. The paper continued to be success this year and even debuted a magazine in May.

“I loved being editor of the paper. It was such a great experience and I learned so much. It really helped me grow as a person and the staff was amazing. Without them it wouldn’t have been possible. I enjoyed working with everyone on the staff and am so proud of the newspaper and the magazine,” Gemmati said. “I took the editor position because I thought it would be great experience and I really wanted to give back to Medaille. I thought what would be better then to continue helping in the growth of the college’s award winning student newspaper. I honestly couldn’t have imagined my last year in college without the newspaper.”

Gemmati is one of the seniors that is a little nervous about graduation and what lies after she walks in May.

“I have been completely nervous about graduation the entire year. Time was flying and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do career wise. I started looking on Buffalojobfinder.com in November and applied for jobs I thought I was qualified for. I was really interesting in marketing, event planning or public relations. I wanted a career that would keep my on my toes, challenge me and allow me to think independently and voice my ideas. After months of looking, I feel that I have finally found what I was looking for. I will be the Marketing Administrative Assistant at Jaceckle Fleischmann. I am so excited to start my career and feel that Medaille College and the professors in the Communications department helped me tremendously,” Gemmati said.

Gemmati really enjoyed what she learned from the professors in the department and the advisors as well.

“I enjoyed the hands on projects I was assigned in Broadcasting with Lisa Van Valkinburgh and Promotions and PR with Lou Pozantides. I also learned a great deal from both Lou and Lisa’s public speaking courses. On top of my coursework, I must say the internship programs great. I think it is great that the college requires all Communication students to complete three internships before graduation. I think the experience you get with them is great and you have a opportunity to make some great connections. Also, the newspaper has been a big part of my college experience along with Lisa Murphy who really helped me strengthen my writing.”

Gemmati is also getting married in December so everyone in the Communications department wishes her the best of luck.

Most of the seniors have enjoyed their four years at Medaille but some seniors haven’t been here for all four year.

“What I like best about Medaille are the best friends that I’ve made. I transferred to Medaille because I like the small class sized and the media department internship program,” Abby Seitz said.

Lou Pozantides and Lisa Van Valkinburgh are the most popular professors in the communications department and are a huge part of it and there are some students that want to become teachers because of them.

“My career goals are to finish grad school and to keep teaching at the college level,” Seitz said. “I’m already lined up for a job for after graduation. I’m going to be a teacher assistant at the College of Charleston while I attend grad school.”

Most seniors are excited about graduation and Seitz is one of them.

“I’m excited to graduate so I can move on into my career and adult life.”

Seitz enjoyed the communications department as most graduating seniors do but every senior has their own reason why they enjoyed the department at Medaille.

“The best part of the communications department is that it’s small. I got to know all my teachers & they helped me in school & in life.”

I sit here and reflect on my past 4 years…..wow what a wild ride. The countless classes, tests, exams, assignments, stacks of books read, relationships formed, and all the knowledge ( same used more than others). I still don’t think that it’s hit me yet that graduation is right around the corner. I know it will be an emotional time for me because I’m the last of 4 children to graduate from college ( my parents also did a little dance when they signed the last tuition check). For those of you that will be there…my family will be the loudest people in the whole place when I walk across that stage.

I sit and wonder though if I’m really ready for the next step. For some of us it will be entering the work force & for some it will be to continue our education in grad school. While the progression in imminent, who is ever really ready for all that life has to throw at us? Some of us will undoubtedly cling to our youth as long as we can and for others we will just be launched into full fledged adulthood and all that it comes with.

I say to all of us….SEIZE THE DAY!!! These are the best years of our lives (high school smich school). Let’s live it up!!! Embrace what we have today and live for what tomorrow may bring to us. Don’t be scared of the unknown……take on the challenges and show the world what you’re made of. Don’t be afraid to fail some times, in life it’s inevitable, but pick your self up, brush it off, and keep charging up the mountain of life….It’s an adventure. And if you ever remember one thing…..don’t sweat the small things in life cause no one ever gets out alive!!!

Abby Kate

Courtney Pellett

When it comes to being a hard working, one name comes to mind, Courtney Pellett. Whether it be with WMCB or The Perspective, Pellett has shown determination in anything she puts her mind to.

This year, her senior year, Pellett became Photo Editor of the newspaper. Last year she was Features Editor.

“I applied for Photo Editor on the advice of our advisor and some of the other editors from last year. I love taking pictures. It is one of my passions and other than Greg [Wlosinski], last years Photo Editor, I was the go to person to edit,” Pellett said.

The good that Pellett can bring to the table is the fact that she has the ability to work in more than just one medium.

“My career goals are so mixed up because I want to do everything, however I know that someday I would really like to own my own event planning company because it is the perfect thing for my creative side and I love planning a good party,” Pellett said. “I like print better. I’m a big talker, but in all honesty nobody cares what I talk about unless they are involved and I talk super fast so nobody can understand me. With print I feel like you get a chance to be more creative. For the newspaper I’m in charge of the photospreads and it really lets me be creative and have some fun.”

With April ending and May quickly approaching, there isn’t much time left before the senior class graduates and is done with their undergraduate work at Medaille.

“I’m scared and excited about graduating, it just depends on which day or hour you ask me. I’ve been in school since I was five, it’s about time that I’m done with it, at least for now; someday I plan on going back and actually I really want to get my doctrine in the future. I’m scared because I still don’t have a job or a clue what I want to do. Sometimes I envy my education friends because they know what they want to do without question. Communications is so general that you can really do anything.”

The Communications department and its professors are a huge part of each class that comes and goes at Medaille. Every senior has something or someone that they will miss and truly appreciated as their four years came an went.

“The best part of the communications department has to be Lisa and Lou. I’ve never met two teachers or professors who care so deeply about their students. They take the time to get involved in our lives and they trust us to share in theirs. They want everything to do their best and become shining stars. I couldn’t of asked for better professors and I count myself lucky to know them.”

Tara talks about her performance:

“The first round was all about fun and working the crowd. The second round got vocally intense.

Tara’s thoughts on the competitors:

“To be honest, there were a couple of vocally talented people that really surprised me. I’ll keep them in mind next year for the musical.”

Tara’s thoughts about being in the competition for the third year in a row:

“It was the same as every other year! I just get up on stage and have a good time doing what I love and live to do: perform. I really love the crowd and their reactions to what I sing. I live for the screams that they give me. It’s one of the greatest feelings ever.”

Tara talks about the judges:

“I didn’t quite agree with the selections they chose to get through to the next round; but I did like the feedback and critiques that were given to the contestants.”

Tara’s thoughts on finally winning it all:

“Being my third year, I went in with the attitude that it was my year to win. However, I didn’t expect to take the grand prize after hearing a few of the competitors. My primary focus consisted of putting on a great show for my fans, and I believe I did.”

Next year Tara will be a judge as that is what the winner receives for taking home the grand prize, $500 and the chance to judge the next year.