“Don’t you want to leave your mark at school?” the president of La Salle’s Student Government Association (SGA) once asked me in an attempt to get me to join. I did want leave my mark at school, but not with the SGA, so I responded “In a bathroom.” I thought that was pretty clever.

That idea of leaving my mark at my school has stuck with me since then. Everywhere I work, everywhere I go, I want to leave my mark. I want to create new ideas and ways of thinking in places so that when I am gone, a piece of me remains. I feel everyone, student or not, should strive for this as well.

And no, I don’t have some complex where I feel I need to leave my mark on the world before I die in order to feel like my life was worth something, not that there is anything wrong with that. I just like giving whatever I do 110% of my effort, because I believe the more I put into my work, the more I get out of it.

School Newspaper

I was hired to be the Graphic Designer for my schools newspaper in 2005. As Graphic Designer, I create and edit ads for advertisers. In addition, I create graphics for sections editors as needed.

At the time, my school’s paper did not have a web site. The web was beginning to grow dramatically and I knew that my school paper not having a web site was a handicap to La Salle, La Salle’s community, and the newspaper and all of the people who are involved with it. I asked the Editor-in-Chief if I could make a web site and she said “Go ahead.”

I spent a few months researching other school web sites, prototyping, designing, and presenting to, among other people, the Dean of Students and the Editor-in-Chief. I found the entire process exciting and it paved the way for my future jobs since before that point I did not really have any portfolio pieces.

I helped everyone realize how important having a web site was. The entire editing process of the paper has changed party because of what I created. My school’s paper now has a web presence–a site people can go to if they miss an issue of the paper. Prospective students who are into journalism look at the web site and may attend La Salle because of what I created.

Currently, I am trying to migrate the site to an online application called College Publisher, which would allow the paper to more efficiently update the web site, and will help the future web editor better manage the site and ensure that the site does not die when I graduate. College Publisher will only further leave my mark at my school.