The Chronicle’s mission is “to provide the Quinnipiac community with relevant and up-to-date news.” Working with the student-run newspaper for the past four years has taught me to live up to this goal, to provide news to the public.

Every Chronicle staff member speaks of The Chronicle like it’s a living thing; it’s something we have to delicately create on a weekly basis, but something to carefully maintain. Sure, it’s a news outlet, but it’s a valuable source for the public. It’s also where I worked with some of Quinnipiac’s most talented students and leaders, and where I understood what true journalism entails.

I know Quinnipiac through the eyes of The Chronicle, which has worked to present an honest portrayal of the university and its surrounding communities.

My involvement with The Chronicle has brought me out of my comfort zone and helped me find my place at Quinnipiac. Four years ago I scanned the tables at my first involvement fair and signed up for the school paper. I went to the first staff meeting my freshman year, 10 minutes before it started, prepared with a notepad and pen. My eyes lit up as I grabbed a free slice of pizza (the first of many) and sat with the editors.

I have committed four years to The Chronicle and led the award-winning organization as editor-in-chief my senior year. At first I was just a name on a list of interested students, now my name was on the masthead.

I want to thank you, our readers, for relying on The Chronicle for information, recaps, ideas and conversation starters. With your support we were able to brand ourselves as a reliable source of information. Thank you for asking questions, for commenting on articles or Facebook posts, for sharing articles and liking our photos, for tweeting at us, retweeting us, tagging us in your posts and picking up our paper.

We all work hard for you, our readers. We work to provide information, but to also entertain. We work so hard because we care about important news that you all deserve to know.

I sincerely want to thank the Chronicle staff members. Thank you for your commitment to The Chronicle, for coming to our Tuesday night staff meetings and distributing the heavy bundles of papers around the three campuses.

Each week I was amazed by the talented writing I read while working on the paper. I have seen you all grow into brilliant writers during my time with The Chronicle. You all have impressive and original ideas for storytelling that I encourage you to show them off! Share stories and information that you want people to know about, that you feel they should know about. Don’t be afraid to open your mouth during a staff meeting or to talk to someone on e-board.

That’s goes for you too, our readers. Don’t be afraid to reach out to The Chronicle. Send us a “Letter to the editor” if you have comments about our content or if you want to announce something to the public.

A lot of people keep asking me if I’m sad that it’s over or if it’s bittersweet to see the end. In fact, it’s exciting. I’m excited for the new leaders of The Chronicle to take on the newspaper and make it their own. I’m excited to step into this new season after college. I’m not that emotional (sorry, Hannah) that it’s over because it’s time for me to move on, it’s time for all graduating seniors to move on.

It doesn’t have to be sad or scary to leave Quinnipiac, it did its job. It helped build up strong, passionate leaders who will change the world and it created a successful generation.