Collegiate Times

You know that commercial on VTTV with the guy with the shaggy hair standing there talking about how he walked in, got an application and had his first assignment the next day? That's Trees. He works here. And he's not exaggerating.

His name isn't actually Trees. It's Taylor Rees Shapiro; his byline is T. Rees Shapiro. Hence: Trees. You can have a cool nickname like that, too, if you walk into the Collegiate Times office and fill out an application.  

There are a few misconceptions when it comes to working for the CT or college media in general. The first and most commonly asserted one is that you need to have experience writing stories. This couldn't be further from the truth.

The CT is currently hiring reporters, and I'm going to make the assertion that if you are interested in writing but think you don't have enough experience, you can still become a news reporter.

The features section is always looking for people who want to write human interest pieces and community awareness stories. So if you want to write for Vanity Fair one day, hit up the features editor.

There are plenty of people to guide you on your first assignment. Not only that, but there are five training sessions scheduled throughout this semester tailored to improving reporting skills. These sessions are led by our editorial adviser, who has taught the editorial staff everything they know. (Except for the times they screw up; he didn't teach them to do that.) So if you like to read the newspaper and find yourself thinking, "This story was stupid. I can do so much better," come on in and try it out.

If you think you have much better ideas for stories than what we have been covering so far, climb on board. Or even if you're intrigued by how the newsroom works and the hierarchy flows, start as a news reporter and work your way up. Who knows, you could be editor-in-chief one day.

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