The root of all student publications is experiential learning. As students of not only the Scripps College of Communication but also every other college at Ohio University, there are plenty of student organizations, publications and clubs to join to grow as a person and in your career. For over 100 years, The Post has offered experiential learning for all OU students.
Though most people may think The Post staff is made up of strictly journalism news and information majors, there’s a big chunk that is outside of that major, as well as outside the realm of journalism at all. For instance, our digital managing editor is an economics and political science double major. On top of that, we have other staff members majoring in geography, history, english and political science, to name a few.
With our various sections and opportunities, The Post is a place for anyone to come and get real-world experience — something that the coronavirus pandemic has made clear.
With over 120 active members, The Post functions as close to a professional newsroom as possible. With immersive engagement and operations, we publish over 40 stories per week and a weekly 24-page tabloid every Thursday morning. All of our editors meet daily Sunday through Friday, and that doesn’t include individual staff meetings. The Post prides itself on being an intensive publication that mirrors post-grad life in a newsroom.
Nevertheless, through all of these meetings and quotas, there’s the opportunity to express yourself and grow as a writer, photographer, designer, videographer, coder or social media curator.
In doing all of this, Post staff members get the experiential learning they need after graduation. For those journalism-specific members, you learn the bones of journalism in class, but you really get to apply that knowledge at a student media publication. For those not familiar with journalism, The Post is an educational opportunity where you can learn, grow and become confident in whatever role you’d like to possess.
Personally, I would be nowhere in my career if it wasn’t for the opportunities The Post gave me. I wouldn’t be writing this column as editor-in-chief without the great experiences and mentorship from those before me. With that, I’d like to think all Post alums would say the same thing. There are Post alumni at The Washington Post, the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, USA Today, the Idaho Statesman and more. The experiential learning gained from The Post most definitely helped them to achieve these positions.
Experiential learning, or “learning through doing” as OU puts it, is quite literally a pillar of the university, and for majors far and wide, The Post has been a pinnacle of that for decades. Whether it’s through engagement, mentorship, challenge, ownership, self/social awareness, or any other possible area of involvement in experiential learning, The Post has it all and will continue to be an outlet for students, as well as a trusted source in Athens and Southeast Ohio for decades to come.
Molly Schramm is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University and the editor-in-chief of The Post. Have questions? Email Molly at ms660416@ohio.edu or tweet her @_molly_731.
