Written by Caitlin Cruz
Edited by Issa Napon
Traditionally, stewardship is seen in a faith or religious setting. The act of being responsible for something, the act of serving something, always invoked a god-fearing image in my mind.
In the last four years, stewardship has come to invoke something different in me. Merriam-Webster defines stewardship as “the activity or job of protecting and being responsible for something.” That “something” for me has become The State Press, ASU’s independent, student-run media organization. I was first hired as a freshman when I was 18. Now, nearly four years later, I am graduating with my master’s after occupying the top position at the joint: Executive Editor.
I’m very proud of the work the State Press has accomplished in the last four years, building on decades of amazing contributions by budding student journalists at Arizona State University. In the last four years, this place has changed. When I started, there was one annual magazine and a daily broadsheet newspaper. Now, we publish a quarterly magazine and a weekly tabloid-style newspaper. The newspaper has an active investigations team and an overwhelmingly talented multimedia staff. That staff started out as three people almost four years ago. Now, about a dozen or so students create documentary-style videos and photo stories to chronicle the visual side of ASU. These accomplishments fail to list the numerous awards our print and online products have won and, I think, fail to adequately articulate how proud I am to be responsible for this organization – for it to be my path of stewardship at ASU.
But sometimes, that stewardship means doing things that make you slightly uncomfortable. Like helping make this commercial. I prefer that my work at State Press is behind the scenes (or the byline), but I know that advertising is important to the sustained future of the newsroom that gave me my start in college journalism. I come in at about 2:30.
When starting your post I see that you talk about how Stewardship was traditionally used. I agree on the fact that the term has been transformed and, of course, adapted to different contexts and personal realities. Thanks for sharing!