By NORA THOMPSON
I started taking journalism classes when I was in high school. I decided to forgo the free period at the end of the day that all my friends had and write for the newspaper at Sahuaro High School.
I’m glad that I did because I realized that I was passionate about reporting and writing. And it gave the clarity that I needed when I started college to declare a major.
In high school, I was a part of an almost entirely female editing squad, and I expected college to be that way as well. I’d heard that women are more likely to pursue writing careers than STEM majors so I expected journalism to be a girls club once more.
I was wrong, JRN 101 was evenly split between male and female. Then, when I took newspaper publishing, it was mostly men.
This year, in a class of 12, only two of us are women. And that’s OK. I’m grateful for the amazing reporters that work so hard for us. I’d just like to have more girls writing for us.
I’m issuing a call for any woman that likes to write, any woman who just finished her Writing 101 class and has discovered that she has this natural talent for writing she didn’t know about. I want women that are passionate about current events and women that wouldn’t think about writing for a newspaper because they aren’t journalism majors.
Because more than the start of my journalism career, the newspaper has given me a platform. It’s introduced me to parts of Pima that I wouldn’t have known about and even opened several doors for me with internships outside of journalism.
If you are looking for a sign or something to do, come on over to the dark side and write for the Aztec Press.
You can email our adviser at [email protected], or you can just sign up for JRN 101 and see what happens.
Weirdos are encouraged to join.