Calie Siplon
Editor-in-chief
Hello everyone!
It is a little strange to write something that is not in AP formatting, but as the semester ends, Mickelle and I thought it was necessary to say thank you and goodbye.
This is not goodbye forever, of course, we’ll be back next semester, but this semester was a wild ride that deserved some appraisal.
This semester, the Branding Iron welcomed two new editors on staff including myself and Mickelle Bisbee. While the job was not easy, Mickelle, myself and Kylee Harless (our returning online editor) spent many long days editing and coming up with stories for our readers. The longer the three of us worked together, the more excited we all were to tell stories to our readers and bring truth to issues that affected our campus.
If not for this position, I would have never fully understood just how amazing our students are. The sheer number of stories that the Branding Iron has run about philanthropic events put on by the student body is amazing.
This pride also extends to the Branding Iron staff who were not only incredibly welcoming to me when I joined their ranks, but were easy to work with and looked at the challenges we faced with a smile. The amount of teamwork that the staff has shown is incredible, and I’m so proud of how quickly and effectively our writers, designers and photographers took on the stories that were sent their way.
This year, the Branding Iron made some changes and took some risks, and our staff took them in stride. The largest change is that this year, the Branding Iron decided that we wanted to be a newspaper for Laramie, not just the University of Wyoming campus. We have been trying to think about what is important for the students and the community to know, as well as release it in a way that makes the news accessible to everyone.
This caused a change in the stories that we assigned, and our writers responded enthusiastically, eager to dig their teeth into something substantial, and I could not be happier with the result. That is not to say that there still are not improvements to be made, but that is to say that we at the Branding Iron are excited to put those improvements in place.
Before I go, I want to thank our readers for staying with us and continuing to read the paper that we love to make. Without you, we would not have the positions that we do, and we would not be able to tell the stories that we want to tell.
Goodluck to everyone on finals, and I hope everyone has a great break!
Sincerely,
Calie Siplon.
