Most people who know me at The Chronicle also know that I am part of an unofficial fan club for Sean Moroney, managing editor of V. 103. Although my layout skills were arguably better than Sean’s when I joined, Sean had dozens of skills that were infinitely more useful. One of his most memorable quotes for me went something like, “You have so many choices in life that the best you can do is pick one and make sure you can defend it.” As I begin to choose what to write in this column, that quote comes to mind.
For me, what’s captivating about Sean, and other countless great staffers of The Chronicle, is their openness to mentorship. I first walked up to 301 Flowers wanting to be a layout designer, but then, under the encouragement of Sean, started writing stories.
My first article was on OSAF Crash Courses. I now know that it was just a routine story about a routine program, but like most freshmen, I treated it as the most important story in the world. And when it finally came in, it was a disaster.
And then, I witnessed the magic of mentorship. Even though it was such a routine story, the managing news editor walked with me to OSAF and sat down with me as I conducted my interview with the program coordinator. The news editor herself helped me gather quotes from administrators. After a lengthy copy editing session, I felt like I was the same unskilled, naive freshman, but something inside told me that I should go back, that I would learn something new. I took a leap of faith and kept writing.
Fast forward two years: It’s 10 p.m. in the middle of production, and the power goes out for six hours in 301 Flowers, forcing us to relocate to the group study rooms of the Link. We brought along half a dozen iMacs and a 50-pound Dell server that held the majority of the content that this organization has produced in the last four years. And it was probably not backed up. But I digress.
During those six hours of darkness in the office, I saw the most efficient, motivated and driven team dedicating themselves to one common goal and doing whatever it took to reach that goal. Although the evidence in this case was obvious from the mob of bleary-eyed people carrying iMacs across the main quad to the Link, I think the same passion and drive can also be seen from the best reporters in this office on a daily basis.
I tell these two stories as a shameless plug for The Chronicle. But I also tell them because I think they embody the best characteristics of any organization: passion and mentorship, which both make The Chronicle a great sandbox for a third item—taking risks. All great achievements ever recorded in history involved huge risks with insurmountable odds. In most cases, it was the determination of a group of passionate people that overcame these odds, something that I’ve seen more than a few times during my four years at The Chronicle.
These two stories are imperfect in that they do not and cannot possibly represent all the good stories I have to tell about The Chronicle. But like Sean said, the choices have to be made, and the rest is history. If there’s any advice in this column, it is the same eternal wisdom passed down by the managing editors of The Chronicle: Try new things (with the layout design).
But I recently heard a better way to say it from a former Chronicle editor: “Leap, and the net will appear.”
Someone at The Chronicle has caught me. Every time.
Hon Lung Chu is a Pratt senior. He is special projects editor for online, former managing editor and former design editor of The Chronicle. Like his Trinity counterparts, he would like to thank the masthead of V.103 to V.106 for four un-four-gettable years, especially Will, Emmeline, Charlie, Naclerio, Gabe and Naureen, for being inspiration pillars and putting up with his idiosyncrasies.
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