Rachel Wagner

I started at College of DuPage (COD) over two years ago knowing exactly where I wanted to be—in the newsroom, furiously typing away at my keyboard. After writing for my high school publication, I figured I’d give college journalism a shot. I emailed The Courier editor, browsed codcourier.org and waited anxiously for a response.

For the next week, I was constantly checking my phone. Finally: “1 new message.” I got lucky. A staff writer position had just opened up. So I applied, interviewed (very sweatily) and got the job.

The first time I met the staff was at a conveniently timed Halloween party, where I showed up dressed as Ash Ketchum from Pokémon. I thought it could come across as dorky, but the only comment I got was, “You made all of this? Cool!” That night, I laughed so hard that I forgot I had only met these people an hour earlier. I left the newsroom thinking everyone was nice and that we’d probably work well together. 

What I didn’t realize then was just how well we’d work together. Or how much these people and this place would come to mean to me. Somewhere between late-night editing sessions, last-minute rewrites and conversations that somehow drifted from piece formatting to life advice, The Courier became the place where I grew into the writer and person I knew I could be. 

After being promoted to managing editor, I was faced with a new set of challenges. Trying to wrangle a bunch of staffers to check-in with us about their work isn’t always easy. But through it all, this newsroom taught me how to lead with confidence, how to listen, how to trust my instincts and how to keep going even during the longest weeks. 

More importantly, it gave me people who made every stressful deadline, chaotic Zoom meeting and exhausting week worth it.

To our Editor-in-Chief, Bee Bishop: thank you for trusting me enough to step into my role. I could not have done any of this without your support, guidance and texts that somehow always convinced me to come back the next day with a smile and a quick quip. You made me feel capable, even during moments when I doubted myself the most.

To our adviser, Jim Fuller: thank you for believing in me and for pushing me to become a better writer, editor and leader. Your ability to keep things light even during the most intense stories has inspired me to try to do the same for others. I’ll carry that with me throughout my career. 

And to every member of this newsroom, both past and present: Thank you for making this place feel like home. Each of you has left a mark on me and taught me a lesson that I’ll carry long after my time at COD ends. Thank you for trusting me to point out the Oxford commas in your stories. Thank you for tolerating my tendency to respond with random images and Christmas tree emojis instead of fully functioning sentences. And thank you for trusting me with the keycard that I have absolutely never lost and frantically searched for while severely undercaffeinated. Somewhere in the office, you’ll probably still find an old Brew 425 cup from six months ago that can now legally claim personhood. No, I’m not sorry. Please let it replace me.

It’s difficult to explain to people outside of student journalism why we care so deeply about the craft. Featured images, breaking news timelines and stories that keep us buzzing long after deadline may seem minuscule in the grand scheme of things. But the people here understand it. You understand the pride that comes with creating something together year after year, shaping your collective legacy. You understand the responsibility that comes with telling other people’s stories well. And you understand what “community” truly means in community college when you have the privilege of hearing those stories each and every week. Seeing campus through this lens gave me the unique opportunity to deeply connect with our school in all facets. 

And yeah, you’ve probably seen me having my main-character moment blasting music in my earbuds while delivering papers across campus. But between the dramatic soundtrack, there was usually my inner monologue replaying the stories of the people I’d met along the way. The faculty passionately discussing their classes and clubs, the students working on campus-wide improvements and the countless people who trusted me enough to share a piece of themselves with our newsroom. 

Those stories are why I kept coming back. Our readers, the COD community, are what made me grateful every day to have a voice and the opportunity to use it.

So thank you, reader. Thank you for pulling The Courier out of the Microsoft Outlook void and taking the time to click around our website and flip through print, even if it was just for the crossword puzzle. Thank you for caring about what student journalists have to say. Every read, every share, every comment, every conversation made this work feel meaningful. And if there’s one thing I’ll carry with me from all of this, it’s that these stories don’t end here. Rather, they move on to the next set of hands that are ready to tell them. 

So what’s your story?