LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Esteemed students of Mt. Hood Community College: We have finally reached the end of the school year. If this is your last, I offer you congratulations and best wishes going forward; if you have more years ahead at Mt. Hood, then never forget why you started.

If you don’t know who I am, my name is Matana McIntire and I’m the Editor-in-Chief of the Advocate, Mt. Hood’s independent student newspaper. I’m a 22-year-old high school dropout who was born in Gresham, who’s lived in Gresham her whole life, and who was never interested in journalism until I came to Mt. Hood.

I joined the Advocate as a staff writer in the fall of 2015. I’ve been a writer and an artist my whole life, and I wanted to challenge myself with something I’d never tried.

During Fall Term, I moved from staff writer to Web Editor. From there, I was promoted to Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor in Winter Term. Next, I worked as the Arts & Entertainment Editor for the 2016-17 year, adding Associate Editor, second in command behind the Editor-in-Chief, to my duties in Winter Term. In the spring, I interviewed for the position of EIC for 2017-18.

I’m not a perfect leader. I’ve been known to barely make our weekly meetings on time. I get off track, often. I have bad phone anxiety, and general social anxiety, so I often make my staff greet walk-ins so I can avoid the small talk. I had goals for the paper that I never reached. I forgot about a lot of important details. Being Editor-in-Chief is certainly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done! But I’ll always be thankful for my experiences here, because it will also be one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

My hope is that you’ve picked up one of our issues on campus in the past year. I cannot herald the work put forth by my staff enough – we have amazing writers, photographers, videographers, and graphic designers. Maintaining a competitive, innovative, and adaptive multi-media publication is hard for an independent student staff, and it is all due to the hard work my editors and staff put in each week.

In my time at the Advocate, I’ve learned more about ethics, industry, critical thinking – hell, the real world – than I have elsewhere. Much of this I’ve learned from our two faculty advisers, but most has been learned from my student peers on staff. For that, I’ll always be thankful; they’ve all shaped who I am today.

I hope that the Advocate continues to be supported by the administration and the students of Mt. Hood. I believe that its greatness has the potential to grow even further. We don’t have a full-on journalism program at Mt. Hood anymore, and I’ve often wondered what the Advocate could be if one was implemented again.

Now, I leave the Advocate with a better idea of what I want from life, and the tools to go out and get it. I have a professional portfolio of my work, both writing and graphic design. Most importantly, I’m leaving with lifelong friends.

It’s been real – so long, Mt. Hood.

– Matana

Advocate Staff