By: Annie Hart

April 5th was one of the coolest days of my life.

As an editor of The Buzz, I was invited to a College Editors Workshop at The New York Times.

Yes, you read that right, The TIMES.

Only 100 student papers from across the United States were invited to send a representative. There were representatives from James Madison University, Virginia Tech, Georgia Southern, and so many more.

We spent the whole day, 10 AM to 4 PM, in a conference room on the 15th floor of The New York Times Building. So high up that when it began to rain, I didn’t even notice. The clouds were below us.

The day was spent listening to six big members of The New York Times team, as well as one special guest, Nicholas Kristof, two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. That was a surreal moment for many of us in the room. He is famous for extremely opinionated Op-Ed work and traveling to war zones, which are two things most of us in the college newspaper world have never done.

The main presenters included:

– Sam Dolnick, Assistant Managing Editor presented on Innovation in Journalism

– Lindsey Underwood, Editor for The Edit and Editor on Style presented on How The Times Thinks About Younger Audiences

– Marc Lacey, Associate Managing Editor of The National presented on The National Desk

– Mark Bulik, Senior Editor, Digital Headlines, and Digital Transition Team gave a Headline Editing Workshop

– David Gurian-Peck, Vice President of Subscription Growth and Planning discussed The Subscription Buisness

– Meghan Louttit, Deputy Editor, and Visual Storytelling on the Metro Desk gave a presentation on Digital Design

I won’t give too much away on their presentations, but they were interactive, in depth, and made me even more passionate about my job as Co-Editor in Chief of The Buzz.

I can’t wait to bring some of the concepts discussed in New York, to The Buzz.

Walking out of The New York Times building onto the bustling streets of New York City at the end of a long day, I felt like a true young professional.

Co-Editor Annie Hart in front of the Pulitzer Prize wall  AT  – The New York Times

Shenandoah University was invited to this event because we have The New York Times available on our campus, in print and online, both for free to Shenandoah Students! Go check it out!