Testimonials from Daily alumni

The Daily Publications Society (DPS) is holding a referendum this week, between Monday, November 13, and Thursday, November 16, that will determine the continued existence of The Mcgill Daily and Le Délit. The student media is an important source for crit

TESTIMONIALS FROM OUR ALUMS

I transferred to Mcgill in 2008 feeling generally alienated and disconnected my first year and I credit The Daily for being the vessel through which I finally felt like I was part of the Mcgill community. While I could write glowingly and at length about my personal experiences working at The Daily and how it prepared me for my career, I want to talk about how The Daily serves Mcgill as a whole. And I think the thing that I appreciated the most about The Daily was that it expanded the world I lived in making me a more connected and engaged person. There were so many issues, cultural events, and communities at Mcgill and in Montreal that I learned about through The Daily; things I would not have thought of or experienced on my own. Sometimes I disagreed with The Daily and that was Ok—it didn’t seek to proselytize, but only asked readers to consider things critically and from new perspectives. The Daily broadens the horizons of Mcgill allowing us to step out of our bubbles and explore what was happening in the city and the wider world. At a time when our worlds can feel more insular or narrow, there’s nothing more valuable. (Maybe gold. The price of gold is doing pretty well.)

Eric Wen, Sports

(The Daily, 2010-11)

It’s a common refrain but one that bears repeating: I learned more working at The Daily as a writer and then editor than I ever did, or ever could, learn in my classes. School newspapers provide critical thinking skills and real life experience. Most importantly, The Daily’s particular political standpoint is intensely valuable: it broadens the limited perspectives of Mcgill students and exposes them to worlds they never knew.

Dana Wray, News

(The Daily, 2013-14),

Coordinating

(The Daily, 2014-15)

I have fond memories of my time at the Daily, but I hope it sticks around for more than my own nostalgia: A thriving student journalism landscape is necessary to prepare students for a variety of careers in media, and can benefit anyone who will need to communicate with other humans as part of their job someday. I studied physics at Mcgill, and worked for the Daily in my free time. Thanks to experience I earned in both the lab and the newsroom, I currently work full-time as a journalist covering science and technology for major news outlets. The Daily taught me how to do an interview, write a feature, and talk about quantum mechanics in a way that will engage readers for more than four seconds.

Shannon Palus, Science+technology

(The Daily, 2010-12)

DPS Director

(2012-13)

For me, The Daily was a second home, a place where I learned the basics of journalism – how to interview, fact-check, write, and edit – but also where I could debate, learn, collaborate, and engage with a broader community than I would have otherwise.

The Daily and Le Délit are important institutions, not just for the current students who work on or read them, but for the histories of Mcgill and Montreal that they have recorded and reported on for over 100 years.

Queen Arsem-o’malley, Coordinating

(The Daily, 2013-14)

The Daily was a formative experience that acted as my primary training ground in community journalism, the ethics of writing about stories from a grounded perspective, and mediating an open space. These are real-life skills that I have taken throughout my life to other fields. As another form of education that is based in hands-on work and engagement with the Mcgill and greater Montreal community, the independence of The Daily makes for a platform for critical voices that otherwise go unheard.

Hera Chan, Photo

(The Daily, 2012-13),

Multimedia

(The Daily, 2013-14)

My time with The Mcgill Daily was the highlight of my years at Mcgill. I wrote my first commentary article very early in my first year, and I was immediately hooked. I had no intention of becoming a journalist before nervously stumbling into The Daily office, but when I left, doing so was my only option. After Mcgill, I did a Masters of Journalism at Ryerson University. While that degree was certainly helpful, I still believe my time with The Daily was the best crash course in journalism I’ve received. I not only learned the skills of how to be a good journalist, but also discovered an ethos of journalism that I’ve taken with me throughout my entire career. Since leaving Mcgill, I’ve gone on to work at Vice, the National Post, and The Globe and Mail. I’ve also had articles published in Al Jazeera, Buzzfeed, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, the Huffington Post, Canadaland, and many more. None of this would have been possible without my time at The Daily.

Davide Mastracci, Commentary columnist

(The Daily, 2011-12),

Copy

(The Daily, 2013-14)

My name’s Erin Hale, I’m a freelance journalist based in Asia for the past few years. I was a news editor at the Daily from 2008 to 2010. I spent most of my free time as a student at Mcgill in the Daily’s basement office – and while my grades certainly suffered I can say that experience is the main reason I’m a journalist today. In fact, before I came to Mcgill, I never thought about being a journalist but within a few months of joining the Daily’s news team I knew that I wanted to make it my career.

The Daily is where I learned skills like how to write a news story and conduct interviews but also more broadly how to think about “big picture issues” in our editorial discussion meetings and the role of the media.

An important thing to know about journalism is that you can only get better at by practicing over and over (and also making mistakes.) The Daily provides aspiring journalists with the safe and creative space to do that and also guidance from peer editors.

Whether you agree or disagree with the Daily’s editorial line, it’s a very important place for aspiring journalists to get their start. Many of the editors and writers I worked with as a student also ended up working at major media outlets or have moved on to other interesting careers in law and academia. I hope all students vote to support the Daily and continue the work of one of Canada’s oldest student publications.

Erin Hale, News

(The Daily, 2008-10)