BY KATIE GAISER
Lions’ Pride Layout Editor

I was never interested in newspapers or journalism when I first came to Saint Leo. However, as a freshman, I needed a job to sustain myself, and the school newspaper was one of the few jobs that was non-work study. So, I gave it a chance and signed up for the paper.

Little did I know I would eat, sleep, and breathe the newspaper until this very moment in time.
The Lions’ Pride has certainly come a long way in the time I have been here at school. The paper used to be filled with articles that were part of a public newspaper college website called U-Wire. With little to no staff writers, it was the paper’s only hope for content.

Now, I am proud to say that not one U-Wire article has been used since my time on the paper. The Lions’ Pride is now completely student run, with all articles written by the students themselves. For such a small university with a limited amount of staff writers, this is a pretty big accomplishment. We were even able to put out a 12 page paper for several issues until the cost of printing went up. Those were the largest issues of the newspaper this campus has ever seen.

More recently, we published Saint Leo’s first ever Art for Art issue, which consisted of poems, short stories, photography and art submitted by students on campus. This issue was a huge success, and it was great to be able to offer the students a chance to show off some of their best work.

We’ve also started a website for our paper, the first ever in Saint Leo history. We were finally able to publish weekly with two print and two online issues a month. This website was a huge step in getting our paper to the faculty, students, alumni, and staff. People are now able to read our paper at any time, at any place, and from any computer.

The Lions’ Pride has done a complete turn around in the time I and the editorial staff have been working on it. Just ask an old faculty member or alumni what the paper use to be like. It was the hard work of the editorial staff and staff writers that made this paper better. People generally don’t know all the work it takes to put out one issue. I invite anyone who has ever had an issue with the paper to give it shot, because I guarantee this job is any thing but easy.

Although we have come a long way, there is still more to be done with The Lions’ Pride. We are striving to be bigger and better with each issue that comes out. We want the students to become involved and tell us what they want to read about. We want to cover the issues most relevant to the students and advise them about things they may not have even read about anywhere else.

I encourage any students interested in writing for the paper to sign up next year, especially if writing comes easy to you. This job is a great way to make money by being creative, talking to interesting people and getting the scoop on the latest events on campus.

Until next semester, happy reading folks.