When I first arrived at Iowa State I was 99 percent sure I wanted to be a physical therapist. I loved everything sports, fitness and health, but after a few biology classes and hours worth of debating whether or not PT school was for me, I left Forker Hall and headed west.
Switching to journalism from kinesiology was a drastic change. A drastically wonderful change that I am so happy I made. It is in the classrooms of Hamilton that I realized my true passion for words, storytelling and reporting. The students all knew each other by name, the professors and advisers left their doors and hearts open and the atmosphere was buzzing with creativity.
This is what I was searching for. What all the movies and books said college would be like. I’d finally found my niche, my group, my family. I decided right away to dive in and get connected. I wrote for the Iowa State Daily for a semester and loved my editors, my beat and everything about the gig, except for the whole “newspaper” thing.
I wanted more space, more inches to write and the ability to reach a smaller, target audience.
I decided to take what little I knew about journalism, my passion for health and few friends and start a magazine. The first few steps seemed so trivial but took almost a semester to complete. I had to come up with a constitution that would set in place the rules and regulations I wanted the publication to abide by for years to come. My treasurer and I had to request funding from the ISU Student Government in order to pay for printing and other necessary purchases. We had to spread the word across campus and continue to grow our team in order to produce an issue by the fall of 2015.
I wish I could say all of this happened without any road bumps, arguments, late nights and tears, but I would be lying. I had to sacrifice other pieces of my life in order to give Happy, Strong, and Healthy (HSH) the time it needed and deserved. I was immediately shown the difficulties of leading a group of driven, creative individuals all with different ideas of where to take HSH. Little did I know how tightly I held my pride until I was forced to see it was holding HSH back, forcing me to learn the skill of delegating responsibility rather quickly.
Flipping through the first issue of HSH I can’t help but be awestruck of the work our team completed. The multitude of talents on HSH’s staff paired with the work ethic required to produce a stunning magazine came together and created something relevant, eye-catching and informative.
Being editor-in-chief of HSH is my greatest accomplishment to date and most rewarding time spent since coming to Iowa State. The mentors and resources provided to me by the Greenlee School have set me up to continue successfully using my talents and passions well after graduation.
With my next great adventure taking place down under, as I study abroad in Australia, I will be passing the role of editor-in-chief off to another well-equipped, spunky student named Hannah Marsh.