- The Gatepost, Framingham State’s independent
student newspaper, is celebrating a milestone anniversary commemorating75
years of excellence in journalism.
- The paper’s perseverance is a tribute to
generations of students who have forsaken the drunken debauchery of “Thirsty
Thursdays” for long hours spent copy-editing articles or greyscaling feature
photos with the knowledge that “We put out on Fridays.”
- This hard work and dedication not only resulted
in an excellent publication, but the paper has served as a stepping stone to
launch the careers of many Gatepost alums.
- Last year’s graduate, Jackie Fornaro, who
formally served as associate editor to The Gatepost, is working for a Web
site called TeenFreeway.com. Fornaro’s job description includes marketing,
technical support and Web site programming. She credits The Gatepost for
teaching her to work and communicate as a professional and for teaching her
that change is a natural progression.
- She said, “Working at The Gatepost allowed me
to meet and interact with a group of people with different personalities and
work styles. Each year – and even each semester – there was a different
group dynamic. In work, at home and in life group dynamics often change, and
it’s important to be able to adapt.”
- Fornaro reminisced about time spent at The
Gatepost. She said, “I have so many great memories of my time spent at The
Gatepost that it’s difficult to describe just one. I will forever treasure
James McEvoy’s poignant narratives read from The Onion, and other fine
sources of literature that kept me laughing well past 2 a.m. every Thursday
night.”
- Dave Gradijan is another former Gatepost
staffer with a Web-based career. The 1994 graduate was a staff writer who
tried to “jump around” as often as possible, and wrote for the news, op/ed
and sports sections.
- Gradijan is the online copy editor at CXO Media in
Framingham, a company which publishes technology-oriented magazines and Web
sites. He edits all the online content and does general quality-assurance
checks.
- Gradijan recalls a night at The Gatepost when the wax
machine was acting up as deadline approached. Literal cutting and pasting of
materials was the method of the time, and the staff was forced to Scotch
tape half the materials to the flats.
- His most memorable moment, however, was
courtesy of Dr. Desmond McCarthy, who has been advisor to The Gatepost since
the early 90s.
- Gradijan received the “Desmond McCarthy Ego
Pump” after turning in his first article. “He showered me with so much
praise that I felt sure I had found the right field for me. I soon came to
see that Desmond made a regular practice of this, of course – so much that
we’d sometimes quietly act out the motion of pumping up a bike tire or
something to call attention to his efforts to pump up another student’s ego.
- “In all seriousness, I could never say enough
about how big an influence Desmond was on me as an aspiring journalist, and
as a person,” he said.
- 2006 graduate Amy Cunningham is working as a
Sales Coordinator for Outside The Classroom. She said her experience working
with the student newspaper as sports editor provided her with “the ability
to multi-task and to adhere to deadlines.” She also said it gave her the
ability to work with a diverse group of people.
- Cunningham has so many memories that it’s hard
for her to choose just one, but The Gatepost’s trip to New York City and
singing and dancing in the office are among her favorites.
- Gatepost alum Michelle (Kealey) Symington said,
“The Gatepost really gives students a glimpse of what it is like to work for
a newspaper. Although I no longer work for a newspaper, I use AP Style and
deadlines are important in my current position.”
- Symington currently works as a Communications
Specialist at The Hartford.
- Her most memorable moment at The Gatepost was
working on the newspaper’s special edition in light of the 9/11 tragedy.
- She said, “Classes were cancelled and it seemed
like the whole campus was glued to the TV and on the phone waiting to hear
more news about what had happened. We interviewed many students to capture
how they felt that day and witnessed many students who went to donate blood
right away to help in any way they could. I will always remember being part
of that special edition of The Gatepost and witnessing how the campus came
together as a community.”
- Kerri Gulessarian, a 1999 graduate currently
works as a project manager in the corporate marketing department at MetLife
Auto & Home in Warwick, RI. She “truly believes” her time with The Gatepost
helped her to get where she is today.
- Gulessarian found the experience she gained
writing for The Gatepost to be “invaluable in the ‘real world.’” She said,
“It’s amazing how writing skills can get you noticed in the corporate world
and how others in the workplace come to rely on those skills.”
- Also, being published on a regular basis gave
her a portfolio of articles to bring to interviews, which she believes put
her ahead of other recent college graduates.
- Gulessarian’s most memorable moment occurred
during her time as editor-in-chief. Fellow editor Mary Beth Cascanet had
written a controversial article about hazing on the girls’ rugby team.
- According to Gulessarian, Cascanet had
“attended some of the games and witnessed drinking from a keg in the woods
behind the field during the game. The rugby team was very upset and did not
want the article published – fearing that they would be punished or
suspended by the administration. As a result, they decided to steal all the
papers after they were delivered by the printer.”
- The stolen Gateposts were eventually found in
the trash, but because the situation concerned freedom of the press issues,
The Gatepost consulted a free legal group and contacted the local press.
- “The rugby team ended up getting suspended as a
club, mostly because of that article. Even the boys’ team was put on
probation,” said Gulessarian. “It was quite the experience!”
- Shannon Rich, a Gatepost alum and former
editor-in-chief now works as a school counselor at the Germaine Lawrence
School in Arlington, which is a residential treatment center and therapeutic
school for teenage girls.
- Though her job has little to do with
journalism, she’s found that patience, dedication and the ability to think
on her feet – all necessary in The Gatepost office – are also applicable to
her current line of work.
- “I learned that I do my best work under
pressure,” she said. “I also learned incredible work ethic, attention to
detail and developed remarkably thick skin – as all journalists must. Those
qualities apply to many angles of life.”
- Jennifer (Dawson) Jusseaume who graduated FSC
in the winter of 2001, is working as a special sales manager for Candlewick
Press – a children’s book publishing company in Cambridge.
- Jusseaume credits The Gatepost for providing
her with life skills. “The Gatepost definitely helps people for life because
you’re working in a professional setting which will prepare anyone for
adulthood,” she said.
- In addition, working at The Gatepost provided
Jusseaume with a portfolio to bring with her on her internship interview at
Candlewick Press. “I really don’t think I would have received the internship
without The Gatepost and the portfolio because there’s a lot of competition
among colleges in the Boston area,” she said.
- Jusseaume’s fondest Gatepost memories revolve
around those moments which “at the time seemed like the worst moments.
- “It’s like the biggest pain in the butt, but at
the end of the day, you’re like, ‘That’s right. I work it,’” she said.
- Glede (Browne) Kabongo, a 1994 graduate, is a
marketing director for International Date Corporation (IDC), a research and
advisory brand in Framingham. She had always enjoyed writing, and wanted to
become a journalist since she was a young girl. So, she studied journalism
under McCarthy and majored in communications.
- It was a no briainer to hone my writing skills
at The Gatepost,” she said.
- Kabongo also interned at the Patriot Ledger in
Quincy, and for the WB, and did some freelance writing for the Middlesex
News, which is now known as the MetroWest Times. She said she learned the
basics: “the four ‘Ws’ and the ‘H,’” structure, hard leads and the different
types of pieces at The Gatepost.
- “All of what I was able to learn, and use at
The Gatepost was a springboard,” she said.
- Kabongo does not have a single fondest memory
of her time with the paper. Instead, she spoke about the experience as a
whole. “I just remember the camaraderie – working on deadline – everybody
working hard, but it was still fun. I really enjoyed that kind of
environment,” she said. “It was pretty cool to see that issue come out that
week.”
- Kabongo said that since she’s left The
Gatepost, a lot of her co-workers have gotten married and moved around, but
she was able to keep in contact with Phil LeClare.
- LeClare is a public relations manager at
Forrester Research which is an independent technology analyst firm with its
headquarters in Cambridge. He is also a freelance sports writer for the
Boston bureau of the Associated Press.
- LeClare began working for the Associated Press
shortly after giving up on journalism as a full-time career about a decade
ago.
- “By that point, I had a lot of professional
clips under my belt, and I had enough people in the industry that could
vouch for me,” he said. “When I got my first paid job out of college – at
what is now The MetroWest Daily News – I did use Gatepost clips. I also had
some professional clips I could share as well.”
- LeClare didn’t find too many similarities
between The Gatepost and writing professionally.
- “My first day, I had a triple homicide. I
didn’t cover many of those in college. The writing doesn’t change – either
you can do it, or you can’t. But, the stakes change. The political
environment is more cutthroat, and the stories are often harder to tell,”
said LeClare.
- “If you get a news beat and you’re working the
‘cop shop,’ which most do out of college, you need to be thick skinned.
That’s not meant to be discouraging, just truthful,” he added.
- LeClare said the biggest challenge is to be
“aggressive and patient.” It takes some time to break in with the big
dailies – such as The Globe and The Herald – but he said The Gatepost has “a
pretty solid network of writing professionals at this point. … I’m sure
you’ll find a lot of people willing to help in any way they can.”
- Suzanne McDonald, who worked at The Gatepost
with LeClare, is an editor for one of those big dailies – The Boston Globe.
- McDonald is a layout make-up slot editor. She
copyedits and designs the Thursday Calendar section with another colleague.
Prior to joining The Globe, she edited and designed page one at the Patriot
Ledger.
- McDonald, who served as editor-in-chief of The
Gatepost, also was an intern for three summers at The Bourne Enterprise. She
said, “Without The Gatepost, I would never have been hired. In my internship
I was treated like a regular town reporter.”
- She believes her position as editor-in-chief
helped her land an assistantship in student media, which helped pay for her
master’s in journalism at the University of South Carolina.
- “As an editor, I learned a great deal about
managing and motivating a couple dozen people who work very hard for no
money,” she said. “With a lot of mistakes along the way, I couldn’t not
learn a lot about myself.”
- McDonald said she has lots of “fond and funny”
memories of The Gatepost most of which revolve around late Thursdays in the
office – “watching the sunrise from the fourth floor, feeding the printer’s
courier cookies while he waited for hours for us to finish up the pages, and
Desmond hanging in there trying to catch every last comma splice.”
- Hope (Murray) Tremblay, who graduated in 1994,
is the editor of the Holyoke Sun whose parent company is Turley
publications, which owns 15 newspapers and five magazines.
-
- Tremblay is the special supplements editor of
all of them.
- Prior to graduating from Framingham State,
Tremblay began working at The MetroWest Daily News as a freelance feature
writer, which she continued after college as well. At the same time, she was
a stringer for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Tremblay said she got
both jobs through contacts she met through The Gatepost. She moved on to a
full-time staff writing position with The Westfield Evening News, which was
a daily paper and eventually became an editor. From there, she moved to The
Sun, where she’s been since 2000.
- “The Gatepost really gave me a lot of
opportunities. It really gave me the opportunity to learn almost every
aspect of what a small newspaper is like.” She said it taught her “more than
just writing” – advertising, layout and editing what Tremblay refers to as
the business aspects of journalism.
- “And it was fun,” she said. She made a lot of
friends and “there’s nothing like seeing the sunrise over Dwight Hall to
start your day.”
- Tremblay also was able to meet famous people
because of The Gatepost. She met David Spade, Rob Schneider and Colin Quinn
while covering a Saturday Night Live comedy tour for The Gatepost. “I even
got called up on stage in the middle of the act in front of 1,200 people,”
she said.
- John Hilliard graduated Framingham State in
2003, and is now working as an education reporter for The MetroWest Daily
News. He said, at that position, he actually replaced two people with
master’s degrees in journalism. “It’s cool to know that at FSC with the
education you get, you are as prepared as someone from B.U. with a master’s
in journalism. Once you get out there, you realize you’re as competitive as
anyone else.”
- He said The Gatepost is good because you work
with people of different personalities as well as learning how to keep
working when “the clock hits 2 a.m.”
- His very first story at The Gatepost was “Back to The
Future Night” in 1999. He was the only one there. “I didn’t want to go home
empty-handed, so I stayed for all three – it was just me and the bartender
who actually gave me a free drink. It was the first non-story I ever did,
and also the first story.
- “In general, it was an awesome experience,” he
said. “I remember going out with people after doing layout or hanging out on
the weekends. It was good experience – a good run.”
- Kerri Roche, a 2006 graduate, is currently
working as a full-time reporter for The Concord Journal.
- “My time spent working at The Gatepost helped
me produce stories in a more efficient manner. It also helped me to grow
accustomed to working with other people on one publication, and it
definitely helped me with my time management skills,” she said.
- Roche started as a staff writer in the fall of 2005
and became assistant news editor in spring, 2006.
- “I would say that The Gatepost gave me a sense
of the importance of journalism, the written word and the effect it can have
on a community,” Roche said.
- Affecting the FSC community via the written
word is something last year’s editor-in-chief Lindsey Gardner knows about
first-hand.
- In fact, one of her favorite articles – a
letter to the Board of Trustees, which ran in the form of a full-page
editorial at the end of last year – did just that.
- “I worked so hard on getting that done to make
a difference. It wasn’t just voicing my opinion – I was giving a voice to
all the students and faculty who wanted more student space in the College
Center. As a result, we were able to get more space,” she said.
- Gardner is now working as a pre-press
coordinator for The Clipper Press in Duxbury, MA – a job which she does not
believe she’d have without her experiences at The Gatepost.
- In addition to providing Gardner with clips to
use on job interviews, her time at the paper involved learning to cope with
the stresses of deadlines and managing people. “Everything I learned from
The Gatepost I implement in my job every single day,” she said.
- Gardner hopes future Gateposters will have the
same type of experiences. “It’s not just work,” she said. “You come out with
such good friends.
