Student media benefits more than just journalism majors

He walks into the small room, packed with chattering journalists, photographers and designers — making a grand appearance as he is the last one to show up. He sets his belongings down in the office and makes his way to the white board.

“How’s everyone doing?’ he asks, as he does at the beginning of every meeting, his voice booming. The whole room’s attention turns to him as new conversations about classes, homework and friends come up among the staff.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing everyone happy with what we’re doing here at the Chronicle,” says the North Central Chronicle managing editor Jarred DeHerrera. “I like to think of my position as helping people to build a good resume and to be as successful as possible.”

Throughout the last year-and-a-half, DeHerrera has been a part of the Chronicle’s editorial staff, starting out as the sports editor during his sophomore year, and then becoming the managing editor the following year. DeHerrera explains that he enjoys working with his classmates and friends at the Chronicle, and helping them to put out quality products.

However, there is something different about DeHerrera in relation to a majority of the other Chronicle staffers: He is a management major.

Given his title of managing editor, this seems fitting. However, what place does a management major have at a student publication, and how did he find the Chronicle?

DeHerrera explains that during his freshman year, he sat next to a previous editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, who told him about available writing and editing positions at the student organization. He initially brushed off this offer.

However, after having had two different editorial positions at the paper within the past two academic years, DeHerrera now sees the influence that his work at the Chronicle, and specifically his position as managing editor, has on his major and career.

“The stuff I do for the Chronicle has to do with stuff that I’m going to be doing every day for my eventual career,” DeHerrera says. He explains that “managing people, kind of getting used to the personalities of a group, and being able to adapt to specifically what your group needs” have “definitely had a big impact on (his) life as a leader in the management sense.”

As DeHerrera stands at the front of the room, MacKenzie Putnal, also known to the Chronicle staffers as “MacPut,” sits at the long conference table, waiting for her next opportunity to interject in the conversation or tell a quick story. Putnal is in charge of editing copy, managing ads, and running the Chronicle’s Facebook account, making her a triple-threat with a high definition personality.

As a marketing major, Putnal says that she also has a lot to gain from the Chronicle, despite not being a journalism major.

“As the copy editor, I read the stories after the section editors have read them,” Putnal explains. “(I) make sure they look good so we’re not putting anything into the paper that’s not high quality.”

In addition to her role at the Chronicle, Putnal has also taken newswriting and editing courses at North Central. She says, “A lot of jobs, even in the business world, want you to be a good writer, and just have a genuine interest in what’s going on around you.” Although Putnal might not be your typical journalist, she understands how working at a student publication can help students in other fields. “I think it’s really important to have all the skills that I have gained from working here,” she says.

Along with Putnal and DeHerrera, Luke Langlois is another Chronicle staffer with a major role who is not a journalism major. Langlois puts the organization in organizational communication as he sits at the conference table, clutching his binder of design ideas.

As the design editor, Langlois says that working for the Chronicle allows him to have a practical experience doing things that he sees himself doing in the future as an organizational communication major. Langlois is responsible for managing and leading the staff of designers, and ensuring that the printed issues of the Chronicle are up-to-par.

“A lot of what I do is just organization and making sure that everything gets done in order to have a quality product at the end,” Langlois says.

At the beginning of his second term as design editor, Langlois had to use these organizational skills to restructure the design staff in a way that he says is beneficial.

“I had a whole plan of action, because I thought I was only gonna have the same four designers,” Langlois says, describing his original plan for the term, in which he knew which designers he wanted working for which section. “And then I came in — had like 12 designers, and I went, ‘Well, there that goes.’”

In reorganizing this system to fit all of the new designers, Langlois decided to take the designers who had been with the Chronicle longer and make them heads of each section of the paper, with one or two newer designers working under them. Langlois then oversees all of these sections to make sure that each is of quality.

“It was really just breaking all the pages down to just make sure everybody gets an equal share,” Langlois says, explaining that this system has been working more smoothly than other design systems have worked in previous terms.

With his organizational skills and his love of designing that he has been able to exhibit at the Chronicle, Langlois has scored what he calls his dream job as a Disney intern for the fall of 2016.

“It (will) be a lot of what I’m doing now,” Langlois says, explaining that, instead of designing a newspaper, he will be using these skills to design newsletters and fliers for Disney. “I never thought it existed until I saw on their website the one day, ‘We’re looking for a communications major with a focus and experience in design, and proficient in InDesign,’ and I went, ‘Well, InDesign and I are best friends, so this could work out!’”

The Chronicle staff nears the end of its meeting — the journalists, photographers and designers slowly exit the newsroom one by one. Despite the small amount of people left, DeHerrera stays, talking with the remaining staff about ideas for future issues of the paper and helping editors work out any problems, always smiling with a calm and collected air about him. Putnal and Langlois also meander around the room, their signature voices and laughs filling the space.