A student news outlet plays an important role for college campuses, being able to shine a “for us, by us” light on current events for students. It also allows the student body to have a voice: to faculty and staff, and to other students as well. At UHCL, the role of student news is especially more important for Communication majors, as senior level students are expected to utilize the publication as a sort of “in-house internship,” providing hands-on experience of media production for a semester – as well as an opportunity to show what they have learned in previous classes on their degree plan.

When I entered the newsroom of The Signal in 2013, I simultaneously joined as a student, but also accepted a position as a paid design editor, joining an editorial staff of three who would lead the students through a two-week publication process starting with Story Ideas and Pitches to Publication.

The student staff would rotate every semester, meaning there was always a resetting learning curve, but it also meant with stronger instruction and direction each semester – we would be able to work towards better production quality. Success found The Signal publishing multiple award-winning projects at both State and National levels through the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association conferences and the Columbia Gold Circle Awards – Who named it among the top 3 collegiate digital newspapers in the United States.

Toward the end of my first semester working on The Signal, talks had began moving in the direction of losing the bi-weekly print editions which had been in production for 40 years. Between 2014 and 2016, The Signal underwent a rebranding and a reorganization of how the classroom and production aspect were handled.

We added a second section of the class, allowing us to double our student staff and crank out new issues every week. Along with the shift to digital came a larger focus on new media, namely video slideshows, interactive infographics and others to be added to the arsenal of publishable media.

In 2017, the transition to Digital finalized, and what resulted was a bold new style of The Signal with an updated website, integration of published issues with Social Media, Videos, Podcasting, Blogs, E-mail newsletters, and a whole lot more. The readership of the audience made its way toward 30,000 hits monthly and growing.

After moving on to a new opportunity in early 2017, the website and multiple elements I help put into motion are still being utilized today at: uhclthesignal.com.