“No experience required.” When I read that The Campus was hiring a new opinions editor, I was excited to apply. I had close to zero experience editing writing, let alone articles for a print newspaper. Nevertheless, I took the “no experience required” to heart, and as I look back, I encourage anyone, regardless of your journalism experience, to join The Campus and help us advance our mission of impartial, fact-driven student journalism.
The Middlebury Campus is one of the few regular, widely accessible and independent forums where all members of our community can express successes and grievances with the college. But the only way that this can happen is through our incredible team of writers, photographers, editors and online staff, many of whom joined with little to no experience.
In January of this year, I was lucky to become the managing editor of The Campus. Up until this point, I had written a grand total of zero news articles independently. My first article, written after I became managing editor, was about the faculty panel on the United States’ war in Iran. I felt a large sense of imposter syndrome writing this article, knowing that even as a managing editor, I had no experience to fall back on. While I had a range of editing experience, having worked as an opinions editor and then as a senior opinions editor for over two years, writing a news article was entirely new. Reaching out to interviewees, condensing hour-long transcripts into two or three quotes and meticulously fact-checking all statements. For my first piece in particular, I was especially concerned about accidentally misquoting someone, which is not something you want to do when discussing the Middle East or Israel.
Nevertheless, I published my first article and immediately began planning my next. I am from Nairobi, Kenya, and I wanted to leave a small mark on the paper by writing about my home country. And so, with the help of Karen Bartlett, associate director of international admissions, I was able to connect with Alan Davidson, executive director at Kenya Scholars Access Program (KenSAP). KenSAP is an incredible organisation that brings high-achieving Kenyan scholars to Middlebury, many of whom would not have had the opportunity to enrol here without the organisation. I am very proud of this piece. Coverage about international students nationwide has been negative and depressing. I wanted to play a small part in reminding the community of the incredible stories international students share and the value they bring to a very homogeneous student body.
It is probably safe to say I am the least experienced managing editor The Campus has had in over five years, maybe even a decade. After all, I will graduate having written fewer than ten news articles. However, even with a tiny sense of impostor syndrome every time I send my article drafts to the news desk to edit, I am heartened and warmed by how friendly and welcoming the Campus staff are. Whether it is section editors helping me restructure my articles, layout editors teaching me more about Adobe InDesign, online editors helping me correct spelling mistakes, or our editor in chief, coaching me about how to make the final changes to our paper before we send it to print, we are a student paper that leans on each other.
Writing for The Campus can be as simple as identifying something you are passionate about, emailing us at campus@middlebury.edu and working with a section to turn that passion into a published article. Want to feature a cool class project? Have you witnessed an injustice in class or your dorms? Watched a cool play at the Hepburn Zoo? Tried a new dish at Taste of India? We want to hear more, and we want to print it.
The Campus is made up of many incredible people. You do not just have to be a writer. Are you interested in photography? Do you enjoy drawing graphics? Want to learn how to use Adobe InDesign? Interested in helping keep our website running smoothly? Are you someone who hates the Oxford comma? Help us! We always need copy editors.
In my time at Middlebury, I believe The Campus has finally transformed into a “no experience required” paper. I hope that this continues well into the future, and I encourage anyone reading this to work with us.
No experience is required to join our staff. Let me serve as a testament to that.
Yuvraj Shah '26 (he/him) is a Managing Editor.
He has previously served as the Senior Opinions Editor. He is a joint major in History and English Literature. He was awarded a $5000 Mellon Humanities For All Times Grant through the Axinn Center for the Humanities and is conducting research about the citizenship rights of the British Kenyan Asian diaspora. He studied abroad at Keble College, University of Oxford. He is a Senior Fellow at Middlebury College Admissions, a Residential Advisor, and Arts Events House Manager. He is a member of Middlebury College’s new 10-year plan development committee. He has previously interned with the New England Review and the Middlebury Magazine. He is an international student from Nairobi, Kenya, and London, UK. He is a UWC Davis Scholar.
