Well, what a long strange trip 2020 has been for us all.

Some of you may have noticed that our alumni newsletter site was not updated last spring. This is through no fault of Stella Harvey – our student editor and now alumna – and her crew who worked to collect and write stories, edit them, get everything designed to go live. Rather, just as we were doing final reviews – the world changed. Suddenly, faculty and students had about two weeks to prepare for an entirely remote spring quarter. Then summer. Then fall. As each new quarter approached we planned for both in-person and remote teaching and held our breath.

By the time the newsletter slid back onto my radar it seemed like the world was completely different than it had been. So my apologies for the long absence. Those stories and updates are here – as are new updates with what’s happened since March 2020. I know things are very different for us all.

And yet – in some ways – they aren’t so different. We were faced with new challenges but, as always, our faculty and students rose to meet them. While we all miss being in the classroom together, faculty and students have found ways to remain engaged, connected and passionate about our field. We are all nothing if not resilient. I continue to be impressed with the work our students are doing in the classroom, on our publications, in their internships. Just in the last few months I’ve been excited to see our interns featured on KIRO’s “Above the Fold” section for their work with local media.

I’ve also seen amazing things from our alumni as you all adapt to new circumstances. And even as things are challenging for you, the desire to assist our current students as they move beyond the (now virtual) halls of Western and into the professional realm has not wavered. Thank you for all you do to support each other and your future fellow journalism alumni.

This year I won’t go through all the usual numbers. In fact, our goal is that this online newsletter will not be confined to a single “issue” in a year. We envision it to become something more fluid – with updates throughout the year. So, if you have news to report – or think we should learn more about what a fellow alum is doing – let us know. We’ll be doing the same here with our faculty, staff and current students.

For now, stay safe, stay healthy. We look forward to being able to host alumni events in person again – like the 50th anniversary party for Klipsun last fall. You can see pictures from that in a story we planned to go live last spring.

Thank you all for everything you do.

–Jennifer Keller