The people you’re covering, you have to look them in the eye — maybe even the morning your story is published.”

—David McCabe ’14, technology reporter at The New York Times

3. At Kenyon, You Can Just Do It

Sometimes it’s not the size of the fish that matters, but the size of the pond. Getting a start in journalism in a small community like Kenyon comes with plenty of advantages.

Henri Gendreau ’16, founder of The Roanoke Rambler news site, used his time in Gambier to co-found The Collegian Magazine in 2014, a year before he took the reins as co-editor-in-chief of the paper. The experience of having an idea — and the freedom to pursue it — has influenced his whole career.

“If you’re at a bigger place, there are systems in place; you’re more of a contributor or a cog,” he said. “But at Kenyon, a classmate and I said, ‘We’re going to start a magazine, and here’s how it’s going to work.’” We went to businesses in Mount Vernon and sold ads to help pay for it, and so we were able to do that without a bunch of hurdles or administrative, bureaucratic roadblocks.”

There are no prerequisites to getting involved in the Collegian. You sign up and start writing. It’s a culture of learning on the fly, taking chances and trying something new. That, according to Singer, is a sharp contrast to other schools.

“If you go to (a large university), there’s going to be a committee you’re going to have to get through to get a spot on the newspaper, and you’re going to have to take certain required classes first, and there are a hundred other people trying to compete for those jobs,” he said. “Kenyon is not like that. At Kenyon, if you want to do something, you just go do it. There’s no barrier to you.”

4. Everything Starts With a Good Question

Reporters don’t need the resources of a major newspaper to break open a big story. They don’t even need a cellphone or the Internet. All it takes is one good question — and nothing teaches that like a liberal arts education.

“What (Kenyon) taught me, both in my general classwork and in my journalism work, was to take my own questions seriously and to research them carefully to find the cracks,” Singer said. “The whole joy of journalism is learning to disassemble interesting questions and put them back together again. It’s exactly the same as a good liberal arts education. Trust your own questions and don’t stop asking them until you have an answer that satisfies you.”

That was central to the “more” philosophy that Liesel Friedrich ’73 — former book editor at The New York Post and associate producer and writer for ABC News — learned at the Collegian: ask more questions, get more sources, always want more.

“Don’t be shy,” she said. “Ask anybody anything you want to know. If they don’t know the answer, perhaps they can tell you who does. Also, it’s important to involve as many people as possible in writing an article. A story has more than two sides. It has as many facets as a Tiffany diamond. … Keep trying to think of new and different angles to approach the story.”

5. Integrity is Job One

Sometimes life lessons come from professional ones. That was the case for Winkler, who came away from his Collegian experience with a philosophy that has guided him for half a century — in and out of the newsroom.

“What did I learn in those two years at the Collegian? The answer is three words, which to me are essential to living well and doing well: ‘Integrity,’ because without integrity, you can’t be taken seriously. So integrity above all else. ‘Commitment,’ because to have integrity requires an extraordinary effort. And finally, and definitely not last, ‘gratitude.’ Why? Because we’re all in this together.”

Jordy Fee-Platt ’22, the broadcasting voice of a minor league baseball team in San Antonio and former trending reporter for The Athletic, recalls a specific incident at Kenyon when this lesson really hit home. A student protest had turned into a lock-in, and a number of facts about the situation were unclear.

“We really had to toe the line of focusing on what the facts were that we had and not speculating, and I think that is such a valuable lesson,” he said. “You think you have these answers and you really don’t, and in order to continue to maintain a good reputation and to be a good reporter, you don’t push things when they’re not there. You stick to what you have for certain. And I think it was those types of stories that were super beneficial down the line.”

There’s no better training for journalism than doing journalism.”

—Erin Mershon ’12, deputy media editor at The New York Times

6. Stories Shape Community

So many journalists get into the business to make a difference in the world around them — and that’s as true at Kenyon as anywhere else. “We did what I thought were some really powerful things,” Singer said. “We picked a lot of fights, which I thought was important.”

Sometimes that means shining a light on uncomfortable truths or starting a campus conversation. One that still sticks with Singer involves a series of articles the paper ran in the 1980s regarding minorities on campus.

“At the time, there were very few students of color, and (the series) ended up leading to a town hall with the trustees who had a whole community meeting about the diversity of Kenyon’s student body. And ultimately, they hired the first diversity coordinator for the College. So we were really driving a conversation.”

How do you know you’re asking the right questions? When everyone on campus is listening to your answers. Decades after she graduated, Friedrich still savors the quiet that fell upon Peirce Hall each week when the Collegian came out.

“The most satisfying thing was walking into the dining hall on Thursday night and having it be silent,” she said in a previous Kenyon Alumni Magazine interview. “No one was throwing their Jell-O or messing around. Everyone was reading the paper.”