What newspapers mean to me

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Recent St. Vincent graduate Lauren Miesner was awarded the Republic-Monitor’s Robert J. Miget Memorial Schloarship. Below is the essay that Miesner wrote to earn the honor.
Getting all of the latest news about good things being done in our community, different events that may be happening, and even something as simple as the weather can be found in one place; and that place is your local newspaper. To me, our communities newspaper is something timeless, and it cant just be deleted with a single click like say an online article. It’s physical, something that has substance to it, and you are able to hold it in your hand while soaking up all of the information held in its pages. Ever since I was young, I enjoyed looking at the newspaper and when I would go to my grandma’s house, she would have cut-out pictures and articles that involved me or loved ones hung up on her fridge. That is just not something you can do with digital media.
My favorite thing about our newspaper is how open they are to having collaborators from around our community participate and make their own articles.

I personally want to go to school to be a graphic designer. One day when I walked into my campus ministry teacher’s classroom, she told me about how our school was going to need an advertisement for the upcoming blood drive and how she wanted me to design the graphics. I was so excited, and once I learned that my work was actually going to be put in the newspaper, I became even more determined to make this one of my best pieces of work.
Working on that graphic was definitely one of the most exhilarating projects I have ever completed in school, and I could not wait for my teacher to send it to the newspaper. I have the Republic Monitor to thank for their kindness in allowing just a high school student that they didn’t even know to make an advertisement for St. Vincent High School. It gave me the opportunity to have a taste of what it must really be like in the graphic design world.
Not only have I designed things outside of the office, but I have also worked in the newspaper office as well. During the Christmas Season, the newspaper is always in need of volunteers to help type the Santa letters that the children write at school so that they may be published in the paper.
I have helped with this twice and I hope to do it again someday as not only is it relaxing and fun, but the staff are always extremely kind as well. I feel like that is the perfect kind of atmosphere for our community newspaper. Our paper always feels very personal, and it makes several people in town happy to see how schools, small businesses, and independent creators are all being supported by our local newspaper. I hope that our paper will continue to be printed for years to come.