Prior to writing this letter, I was watching footage of several coaches from the past in their introductory press conferences, talking about how their ultimate goal is to win championships and to earn the trust of the fan base.

Even though I won’t mention his name, one particular coach used a Boston Red Sox reference when talking about the expectations of his program despite years of mediocrity: Why not us?

Turns out, that line of thinking proved effective, with his program becoming one of the best in the business for a while.

Before I go into more depth about this, I have to get to the main point: I’m truly honored to be leading our student newspaper on campus as your editor-in-chief. I’ve been writing articles for close to three years now and this has been a strong goal of mine to obtain for a while.

It has a personal meaning as well. Participating in several of the student medias at Presbyterian College alongside The BlueStocking has really helped a lot, through both the good and the bad. It has opened the door to a lot of friendships, opportunities, and recognition.

As a leader of one of the four student media organizations, I know that I have a big responsibility in not only producing quality content on campus, but to also help bring our paper to the next level.

While I feel like I’m doing an introductory press conference, I feel that there is one question coming back to the top of my mind: Why not us?

Why can’t The BlueStocking be one of the best college student newspapers in the state? Why can’t we attract more of PC’s talented students to be a part of our organization, regardless of experience? Why can’t we get a lot of viewership of our content throughout campus?

For the former, there is no doubt that the number one goal for this organization is to be one of the best student newspapers in the state.

In case you missed it, we won two first place awards (sports story, sports photograph) and a third place award (arts & entertainment story) from the South Carolina Press Association’s collegiate contest back in March.

Not only do these awards help boost our writers’ writing resume, but it allows the door to be open for other opportunities. For example, three of our own writers teamed up with The Post & Courier down in Charleston this past summer to research about underserved coverage of rural areas in South Carolina and the rapid decline of small-town newspapers.

In addition, taking part of our organization can lead to a number of beneficial awards for producing work to the PC and Laurens County communities. Not only can you get paid for the work that you do, but students who have participated in our organization have gone on to have strong journalism careers post-college.

We also have students write for local websites in the area to boost their experience in writing articles. Plus, some of these opportunities are paid in addition to what they provide!

Lastly and most importantly, for some of you who are English majors, who possess strong writing skills, who have experience in social media, who take photos in your spare time, or who do something similar, my strong aspiration is that you strongly consider taking a part in our organization, whether it’s this semester or the next.

I will admit that we have had some tough years in the past, but I truly believe that the best is yet to come. Last year alone was a huge improvement following the chaos of COVID.

Even if you don’t have the weekly commitment, even submitting something once a month is better than nothing! In fact, if you produce something for us, you will have the opportunity to receive merchandise as a reward in addition to receiving payment!

To conclude this letter, my hope is that whomever is reading this article, whether you’re an interested student or skilled writer, that you strongly consider supporting our organization’s goals by either participating or reading our content.

I’m not trying to make this a recruiting pitch, but rather explain the opportunities that are in store for each of you. There’s a lot to be earned by either being involved or supporting our organization. From a personal perspective, it can be life changing.

College is only a once in a lifetime opportunity, and my challenge for you as the reader is to explore all the things that are currently offered, including the things that we are doing at The BlueStocking, because you never want to look back five years from now and ask yourself “what if?”

So once again, I pose the question: Why not us?