I wanted to take the time to introduce myself to you, our readers, since hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot of my name in the next several months.

Hi, I’m Kami, the brand-spanking new editor of The Trailblazer. I’m starting my third semester here at Vincennes University, studying photojournalism. I’m from Oaktown, Indiana, formerly homeschooled and a self-proclaimed fan of musical theatre. I’ll graduate this coming spring, after which I hope to attend IUPUI and pursue my bachelor’s degree.

Now I want to take a moment and get to know you all. During my time as editor I hope to expand our newspaper’s outreach even further than it is right now. I want every student, professor and staff member to know that VU has a student newspaper.

In these digitally connected times it’s almost effortless to get in touch with someone, even politicians and managers. Nearly everyone has some form of social media, a cell phone, a laptop or other computer and some of us still have home phones. Conversations with people across the globe are at our fingertips. So why not utilize it?

The Trailblazer staff is made up of 16 students right here on campus. Most of us live on or around campus, and a couple of us live just a few miles away. We have a phone in the newsroom to get in direct contact with our team, individual as well as newspaper emails, a web page with stories from our print edition (and some that are exclusive to the internet) and a Facebook page (The VUTrailblazer). And of course, we’re located right here on campus in Davis Hall room 328.

Yet even with all these resources we still meet people who are surprised to find out that The Trailblazer even exists. We’re still struggling with knowing what our readers want to see.

As journalism students, we take entire classes on what holds news value and what to include in our articles and stories.

But few students outside of our major know what the technical right answer is. Instead, when asked “What’s news to you?” people give all kinds of answers from politics, weather and game scores to meeting coverage, business news and downtown construction. News is always changing and people value news differently. This is where you come in.

The best way for us at The Trailblazer to meet your specifications is for you to tell us directly. Give us a call, an email, come to our office or write us a letter if you want. Give us your opinion on what news is, tell us what you want to see in our next issue or just drop in to say, “Hello!”