I have to admit, a Kleenex box was on standby as I wrote this article. My journey with The Connector has come to an end and it is a bit emotional. Along with Maken Imcha, the previous editor-in-chief, Saria Canady, the previous copy editor and John Nguyen, the previous art director, we’ll be bidding our farewell not only to The Connector, but to SCAD, when we throw our caps into the air this May.
It has been a real pleasure to work with the District, SCAD Savannah’s publication, and The Connector for the past four years. When I first joined the District in the fall of 2006 while at the Savannah campus, I merely observed the process of working for a publication. When the spring quarter rolled around, I did a few photography assignments. At that time, The Connector was part of the District as a pull out section.
The following year, I packed my bags and moved to the Atlanta campus. When I first joined the Connector in the fall of 2007 as a staff photographer and writer, Therese Mushock, the editor-in-chief at the time, pulled The Connector out of the District and made it its own newspaper. While it seemed to be a bad idea to have the District and The Connector separated at first, it turned out to be a brilliant move. The Connector was finally able to break out of District’s shadow to form its own personality and adopt a fresh design. We were awarded First Place for Layout/Design Excellence from the Georgia Collegiate Press Association that very same year.
Being able to see the fruit of our labor displayed every Friday on the newspaper racks around campus was an awe-aspiring experience. It was like picking up a free painting to display on our wall because the covers were beautifully done.
Fast forward to the fall of 2008 when I was studying in Lacoste. That is when I received the news that we were going to stop the printing press and make the transition to an online publication. I quietly mourned the loss of being able to touch those stunning, lightweight works of art every week but soon got over it as I realized there were new innovations that we could approach with a web site that we could not do with the newspaper. Now, we were finally able to publish as many photos as our little hearts desired without worrying about how it would all fit on the page. The web site also made it possible to incorporate video and audio clips to augment our stories.
At the same time we moved to the online publication, we formed a quarterly magazine called SCAN so that we could still have at least one form to hold, smell, and touch every quarter. The days of launching the latest issues are the most exciting time for The Connector staff members. Seeing the readers’ reactions in person is just priceless.
Back at the Connector office, we continue to adorn our office with new awards. We just won several Region 3 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: Best Independent Online Student Publication, Non-Fiction Magazine Article, General News Photography. I couldn’t have been any more proud of the hard work our staff members put in the past four years. And those are just the latest in a string of 24 awards over the last three years!
Looking forward, I wish the new Connector staff the best of luck and I am confident The Connector and SCAN will continue to thrive.