By LEAH WANKUM
Managing Editor

This is the last issue of the Muleskinner for the semester. But to be completely honest, I still can’t believe it’s my last issue as managing editor as well. I’m sure a lot of you graduating this semester have serious cases of senioritis, but it still hasn’t hit me that after this issue, that’s it. I’m done, I’m out, I’m free, goodbye. I’m sad to see me go, but I’ve left the Muleskinner in excellent hands, under the care of Steven Spears, my dear friend and colleague.

A look at the past

PHOTO BY BRANDON BOWMAN / PHOTO EDITOR
Andrea Lopez (left) and Leah Wankum

This last month has gone by so fast that I’ve barely had time to sit down and process it all. Steven and I came back from visiting The New York Times just a few weeks ago for a workshop. NYT editors and reporters invited student editors from across the country to Inside the Times, which involved sessions on editorial, news writing, media ethics (my faves), foreign correspondent work and investigative reporting. We also had a few spare moments to network with some of the student editors and hear about their experiences at their respective publications.

Shortly after our return from The Times, Steven and I headed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to join our colleagues in representing the Muleskinner for the Missouri College Media Association Conference at Southeast Missouri State University. The Muleskinner took home 11 awards! I am especially proud of my dear friend and colleague Andrea Lopez for taking first and second place with her video work. The Muleskinner staff also participated in many work sessions on a variety of topics at the MCMA conference, including feature writing, photojournalism, multimedia and design, as well as a panel discussion with potential employers and, you guessed it, more media ethics (again, faves!).

The following weekend, Steven and I attended the Society of Professional Journalists Region 7 Conference with our faculty adviser, Matt Bird-Meyer. The Muleskinner took home six awards. Andrew Mather and I won (him in sports photography, and me in general news and breaking news) so we get the opportunity to attend the SPJ national conference in September in New Orleans!!! I could just die, I’m so excited!!!

A sneak peek at the future

I earnestly stress ethics as a number-one priority in all areas of my life, but especially as I embark on an internationally driven career in journalism. That being said, I’m going back to Korea in just a couple months. I have a fantastic opportunity to intern with The Seoul Times, an English newspaper in the South Korean capital. It’ll be a bit like going home for me, since I already spent a year studying abroad at Korea University. I’m thrilled to start out my journalism career getting international experience and the chance to travel again.

Best of all, I’m committing to five months abroad because I’m graduating in a couple weeks with no ties to anyone! Well, no ties except to my fiancé, Evan. That’s right, I’m getting married too, and no one can stop me. So many great things are happening in my life right now – I’m in my bestie-back-home’s wedding in June! – that I simply can’t even wrap my mind around everything.

But seriously, I think I’ll miss Dirty Burg

As managing editor of the Muleskinner for the last two years, I’ve been able to hire an outstanding staff and pay them to work for me. So far, things are looking great for the newspaper’s future, as we focus more on our digital product and work toward a redesign of our print issue. And, as I mentioned before, Steven is taking over after I graduate, so I’m confident that I’ve left the paper in good hands. You can expect to see my dear friend and colleague Bethany Sherrow continue with “Faces of UCM” into the next academic year, so that plus the redesign by my dear friend and colleague Jacque Flanagan means you can expect the paper to be fierce in the fall.

I’m happy to say that I’ll never have to know a day of the Muleskinner without my dear friends and colleagues Andrea and Brandon Bowman. And honestly, I couldn’t have done any of this at the Muleskinner or grad school without my amazing advisers, Matt and Carol Atkinson. Thank you for everything.

It really has been the best time of my life, with all the cool characters in town. I can’t wait to start my new life abroad and, when I come back, with the love of my life. But in the meantime, I just needed to get through college, so I’m super glad I got to hire the right staff to become some of the best friends I’ve ever had. As Jacque recently put it, “If my life was a TV show, this semester would be the best season.”