With the beginning of a new school year, it’s time to introduce the new school year’s staff.

I’m Madelyn, this year’s Managing Editor.

I’m a transfer student from Lake Land College where I majored in Liberal Arts and was a part of Lake Land’s student newspaper The Navigator.

For my first year at The Navigator, I was the Copy Editor, and for my second year, I was the Editor-in-Chief. 

When I first started at Lake Land, I had no idea what I wanted to do, but then I joined The Navigator and fell in love with journalism.

I am currently majoring in Journalism and minoring in Pre-Law Studies.

I’m super excited about being a part of the Daily Eastern News for the next two years.

Outside of the News, I’m active in theatre both on stage and backstage.

I’ve acted in 12 stage productions and have also been the stage manager for two plays and plan to continue stage managing and acting in community theatre.

The stage productions I was in include “Anything Goes,” “A Christmas Story,” “Clue: On Stage,” “Cinderella” and more. 

I’m also used to the stage from competing in local town and county pageants.

I was the 2016 Jr. Miss Neoga, 2018 Miss Greenup Fall Festival and just last week became the 2021 Miss Cumberland County Fair queen.

As Miss Cumberland County, I was at every fair week event, which included a rodeo, tractor pulls, flat drags, livestock shows and the Cumberland County demolition derby.

At the rodeo, they had a clown who I assisted with a skit where I got to pretend I was Dolly Parton, in the flat drags I got to ride passenger in one of the races and at the demolition derby I got covered in mud from climbing on top of a demolition car to get some cool photos.

When I’m not in the newsroom, which is never, I enjoy painting, listening to Taylor Swift and cuddling with the “petting zoo” that resides in my house.

The reason I refer to my family’s pets as a “petting zoo,” is because there are a total of 14 pets inside my house.

At home we have four parakeets, two finches, two guinea pigs, two mice, two cats, a dog and the most important pet, my rabbit Casey.Casey is the only one of the 14 pets that is solely mine, and she just turned nine-years-old this month.

I’m looking forward to this year at Eastern and as a part of the News and plan to get the most out of this experience.