Senior Send-off: Copy editor offers a word of advice

I know it’s cliché to say that I can’t believe my time at Rider and The Rider News is over, so I won’t.  My time at Rider has been awesome, even though I never won at Bronc Bingo, and the price of Oreos at Andrew J.’s is ludicrous.  I learned so much in the classroom and even more outside of it.  So many exciting things happened to me that I never thought would. I experienced the thrill and fear of being outside during Hurricane Sandy and Cory Booker retweeted the story I wrote about him.

I don’t know what the world has in store for me after I graduate, but I do know that whatever it is, it will be great.  Whether I become a world-famous journalist brining down politicians, exposing secrets and being first at the scene of some world-changing historical event or finally getting my books published and becoming the next literary sensation, it all started at The Rider News.

To my fellow coworkers at The Rider News, you are all amazing people with unique personality quirks and talented skills that made us the most successful News staff in recent memory.  Don’t ever change.

To the future The Rider News staff, don’t forget that this is your newspaper.  It is not the school’s; it is not the advisor’s; it’s not anybody else’s.  Have the guts and the courage to make your own decisions; don’t do something just because someone else suggested it to you.  It will not be easy, but it will be worth it. Journalists perform a very important role in society — even in our small Rider community.  It doesn’t matter what stories you write, just make sure they’re your own. The current staff has set the bar extremely high — don’t let it slip.

-Joe Petrizzo

Outgoing copy editor