Working with The News was one of the greatest honors of my life thus far and I will never forget all of the people I got to meet, interview, and cover in just one year.

Though I wish I could have worked here longer, I am glad I decided to apply and join the team as the assistant sports editor for my senior year.

The News has many alumni who have gone on to do amazing things and I am proud to have been able to carry on the legacy that The News has here on campus and in the Charleston community.

I would like to say thank you to Luke Taylor for encouraging me to apply and then hiring me for the assistant sports editor position this year. In just one year, it has truly changed my life and has taught me so many things.

Thank you to Autumn Schulz for being a great editor and partner as we took on the sports section together. We made such a great team and we did better than I ever thought we could with such a limited staff.

Thank you for allowing me to not only perfect my craft in writing, but also encouraging me to work on our social media and learn to make graphics. I truly enjoyed everything about it. We made so many memories and learned so many things along the way about ourselves and our work and made it through the good and bad days together.

I love that we encouraged and held each other up through everything. We truly did our thing and I am so proud of it all. I’m so lucky to have gained a lifelong friend in this as well.

Thank you to all my coworkers and advisors at the News who have made this a fun experience. I have met some amazing people and made some lifelong friends as we were such a special and fun group. It has been an absolute pleasure to get to know and work with you all.

We had quite the year and covered so many fun and different things. We made it through it all with more laughs than tears, so I think we did things the right way. You all are so great and I look forward to seeing where each one of you lands in this field.

Thank you to EIU athletics (coaches, players, and staff) for allowing me to cover you all and get to write your stories. I learned so much about each of you, your teams, and your sports. It was so much fun being able to witness some fun games and seasons.

I especially enjoyed seeing all of your teams’ chemistry grow over your seasons. I love the chemistry that the teams at Eastern exude. I truly wish I could have had more time to tell more of your amazing stories, but I will leave that to the next set of News sports reporters. But now, I look forward to being a proud EIU alumna at athletic events in the future and reading the News’ coverage of it.

Finally, thank you to all who have read my work and have offered words of encouragement throughout the year. It was really the thing that has kept me going. It is always good to know that people out there read my work and enjoy it.

I put a lot of hard work and hours into providing News content this year. It has been such a great time. I hope you all continue to read things that students publish over the years and offer them encouragement as you did for me. After all, we are all student journalists who are learning to provide the news for our communities.

It has surely been a fun ride and I would not trade it for the world. I am excited to graduate and learn more as I go out into the world. I will never forget what the News or EIU has done for me. I will forever be grateful. Thank you so much. Roll ’Thers!

Kate Stevens can be reached at 581-2812 or at kestevens2@eiu.edu