Journalism, according to North Harford graduate Zoe Finholm, is “the act or art of writing newsworthy stories to be read or seen by a mass audience.” The college freshman highlights the importance of journalism through the emphasis on the knowledge gained from the class. 

     Finholm currently attends Hood College as a first year and Communication Arts major. From the Class of 2020, Finholm is the current web editor and a writer for the Hood college’s newspaper entitled The Blue and Grey. In addition to these responsibilities, the graduate works to “advertise the paper to Hood students and faculty.”  

     In the previous semester at Hood, the journalist focused most of her writing on “the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it impacted the campus and Frederick community. For the final issue in the second semester, coming out on May 10, the writers are ‘focused on life after the pandemic and how [they] will move on from this part of history.’” 

      While in journalism at North Harford, Finholm states that she learned “the basics of writing for the public and mass communication,” as well as “things like writing in AP style, how to write in the inverted pyramid style, and how to ask good interview questions.” 

     The graduate utilizes these skills for all her classes related to her major, but “use [them] all the time when working for The Blue and Grey.” Finholm says that she not only uses the knowledge learned in high school journalism in class, but “in [her] day-to-day life.”  

     The first year has said that she has “gotten a lot of soft skills from writing for The Blue and Grey.” These include skills such as “perseverance, working on a deadline, and communicating with others.” The opportunity to write for the paper has taught her the importance of these skills, says Finholm.  

     The journalist states that despite not having “a lot of experience writing for The Cry of the Hawk,” there are some considerable differences between writing for a high school newspaper and a college one. She elaborates by stating The Blue and Grey “publish[es] more often- every other week instead of every month” and that they “have a little more flexibility with the length of the story since [they] don’t have length requirements.” 

     Finholm notes another key difference between the two publishing sites is that “everyone works on the website for The Cry of the Hawk, but [she does] almost all of the work on the website for The Blue and Grey.” Despite these differences, Finholm recommends taking journalism because it “boosts your writing skills[s], your resumé, and you get to work with some pretty awesome people, no matter where you take journalism.”      

     As for the upcoming journalism students, Finholm advises them to “[b]e patient, be humble, listen to Mrs. Chandler, [and] bring 100 percent energy and effort to every class.”