A first-year journalism student became the editor-in-chief of AACC’s student newspaper in January.
Pe’la Saunders, who lives in Glen Burnie, said she wants to focus on student-related stories as editor, in addition to club events and diversity pieces.
“I do plan to focus a lot on diversity,” Saunders, a former AACC soccer goalie, said. “I’d like to focus on club events, as well as making the stories in our newspaper more diverse.”
Campus Current, an award-winning, student-run newspaper, publishes in print and online at www.thecampuscurrent.com.
Faculty adviser Sharon O’Malley said Saunders is well qualified for the job.
“She took journalism in high school,” O’Malley, who teaches journalism and communications, said. “She’s taking journalism now in college, so she’s really up to speed.”
O’Malley added, “I think that she’s going to be a great asset to Campus Current and to the campus as a whole.”
Her high school teachers agreed.
“Whenever I was in my high school classes … my teachers were always telling me that I was a really good writer,” Saunders said. “So then I ended up taking a journalism class in one of my high school years, and I really liked it, and my teacher told me that I was really good at writing in that style, so I just kind of like went with it.”
Saunders said she enjoys activism and briefly considered majoring in political science.
“But I decided to go with journalism because I … feel like I can do more with telling people’s stories,” Saunders, 19, said. “With journalism, I like to advocate for people, so like doing politics and everything would have been nice, but I really like to, you know, get their stories out to the world.”
As editor-in-chief, Saunders will oversee the Campus Current newsroom and a small staff of reporters and photographers.
“I definitely like to be a leader, but I also like to make sure that everybody has a voice and feels like they can be heard in the newsroom,” Saunders said. “I don’t want to ever shut anybody down.”
Saunders has off-campus interests as well.
She spends her free time volunteering at a dance school for children.
