Maren Halpin, Editor-in-Chief

On a Saturday afternoon in October 2022, I sat on my lofted twin XL dorm bed in Smith Hall. From the outside, there was nothing unusual about this moment — a freshman in college sitting crisscross on her dorm bed, laptop open in front of her. But the mundanity stopped there. In that moment, it all clicked for me. In that moment, it hit me that I had found what I wanted to commit my future to: journalism.

Over the next four years, I did just that. I learned by doing, and the city became my classroom. I cut my teeth as a student journalist, then as a student editor. I explored what it means to be a journalist: the responsibility, the purpose, the grit. With every story I got to tell, I fell more in love with this thing I now get to call my career. I feel like the luckiest person to get to do what I love every day, and that all started right here at The Suffolk Journal.

That feeling from freshman year, the realization of passion and newfound purpose, is one I can still feel so deeply in my core, now four years later. This craft has become a calling for me, and I am grateful beyond words for how this community has supported me in chasing that calling since the day I realized it.

I have enough thank you’s so fill this entire paper, but we still have stories to tell, so I’ll try to keep it as short as I can. Thank you to my family for being my foundation and my biggest cheerleaders since day one – I would never be able to chase my dreams in the way I have without you. Thank you to The Journal’s advisor, Charlie St. Amand, for sparking my love for journalism through your own and for being my true first editor. I am the journalist I am because of everything you do for us and everything you’ve taught us. Thank you to Alex Paterson and Suffolk’s orientation office for refining me into the leader who was so prepared to take on the last two years.

Thank you to my best friend, Casey Wells, for being my rock here the last four years and for spotting how much I was falling in love with those Tuesday night production nights four years ago. Thank you to The Journal staff, past and present, for being my crew, my community and my Suffolk family for the last four years. You all are a constant reminder of how bright the future is. To Shea Sullivan and the past editors, thank you for taking 18-year-old me under your wings.

To my current staff, thank you for trusting me, for your endless passion and hard work and for making our little 9th floor office my safe haven, so full of laughs and constant light. It was the biggest privilege of my college career to watch you all chase your own dreams and blossom here, and I have not a single doubt that I have the best group of young minds with me in this newsroom. Not a single bit of this would have happened without all of you.

And, last but certainly not least, thanks to all of you. Thank you for teaching me how to be a journalist through those first interviews and first stories. Thank you for opening up to me with your stories, your triumphs, your fears. Thank you for reading the stories of others. Every story I have reported or edited here has been with you all as the “why.” I love this community – I love how passionate you all are, I love how true you are to your beliefs and how hard you are willing to fight for them. I love how our differences bring such color and vibrancy, but also unite us.

I am so honored to forever say my start was right here, in this little office, alongside all of you. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve this community and I am so proud to share the title of Suffolk alum and lifelong Ram with all of you.

Julia Capraro, Managing Editor

I always thought that going to college would feel like the fleeting yet permanent satisfaction of finishing a puzzle. During my last year of high school I had come to the realization that I could reinvent myself while I took on Boston. While it was only a 45 minute drive from my hometown of Canton, Massachusetts, it was new nonetheless. Who was going to stop me from changing who I was.

Actually, a lot. For one, I went to college and lived one door down from my hometown best friend. I also was only a few stops away from my first boyfriend on the train. Somewhere in between those factors I lost my ambition to change. I was supposed to start going by “Jules” instead of “Julia” and read for fun. The foreground of this new life I had planned to build was ephemeral. At a point I had given up on a new me at Suffolk University. I started to believe that the self-loathing and anxiously attached girl in front of my over-the-door mirror in Smith Hall was actually me. 

When my friend fully gave up on Suffolk, ditching finals week and whispering a sweet Irish goodbye to 631 in exchange for familiar roads and angelic ambience of suburbia just outside of the city, the once anticipated excitement of summer felt like sludge I might get trapped in. I didn’t even know if I wanted to come back to Suffolk. 

But 45 minutes is far enough to miss the smallest things about the life you build somewhere between the Boston Common and Brattle Bookstore. I wouldn’t be back at this school if something aching in those three months at home in 2023 didn’t make me wish for crinkled posters taped to plaster walls and writing for The Suffolk Journal again. The reprieve of that summer was well needed to remind me of everything that made me want to go to Boston in the first place.

And that love of the city stuck through a breakup, apartment hunting and new roommates. There wasn’t something else making my college experience so electrifying and incandescent, because what was around me was evolving, always. I was becoming a version of myself that my younger self knew and somewhere in my teenage years at Canton High School I forgot. That is the gift my experience at Suffolk gave me.

With four weeks left until I cross the graduation stage, I know there are things about this life that I will miss: the guarantee that every Tuesday night I will walk into The Suffolk Journal office and be greeted with familiar faces who never fail to make me laugh, the hustle of Tremont Street being sprinkled with friends who I can always stop to talk to, the promise that tomorrow I will get to live as a college student again. It’s a wonderful freedom to know that so much of your life is compacted into three city blocks.

There is a version of myself from before these four years that felt guilty for laughing too loud in a high school friend’s basement or felt embarrassed asking someone to read my writing. A version that put up with people too small for a world that managed to be so vast and full of life to me: superficial or exasperated by the prospect that myself and who I was is actually enough, and didn’t want to share in self-assured bliss.

I am not fearful of what’s next. I am anxiously anticipating a new chapter that is boundless from the beginning. There will be more discovery, but I think for the first time in a while I am happy with the version of myself that will appear in photos crossing the graduation stage.

About a month ago, a truly impactful professor of mine submitted a recommendation letter for me. He sent me an email to tell me about what he had to say, and amidst positive and glowing reflections of my college career.

“One question asked for three things that you could improve at. I listed one, which really isn’t one, saying that you have strong opinions that you express with vigor, which can sometimes take people aback — which is true but doesn’t bother me one bit,” he wrote.

“You are no shrinking violet!”

I’ve spent a lot of my college career contemplating whether every moment I am myself is a reflection of being “too much.” From my high school friendships and relationship, to college roommates and once friends, I thought it was an inevitable marker belabored on my name since childhood. Maybe I’ve grown into my big personality since then, but if I have found one thing in college, it is an acceptance with the version of myself that has always brought the right people to me, and allowed me to leave the other things behind.I passed doubt on myself and shuddered at the prospect that being myself was the problem. In reality, every one of those moments; It was all confetti. Blissful, swirling confetti that flows next to every achievement, laugh shared and tears cried. It is fleeting but it means I am making the most of this life I am living, and will continue to live once college is over.

I am framing my posters and donating clothes; changing from unsure to stationary and steadfast. I wouldn’t be here if the past four years were not exactly what they were. Thank you.

Madeline Reyes, Copy Editor

I came to Suffolk University lost. I transferred on a whim and threw myself into the unknown. I would have never imagined the people I met would change my life. There is a bond that no one outside of The Suffolk Journal office can understand. The frustrations and tears shed over InDesign makes no sense to the average person. This isn’t a class assignment or even a job. Everyone comes back, week after week, just because we love what we do.

It doesn’t feel real that I won’t experience another production night. I can imagine each Tuesday so vividly. I see Arts laughing at their inside jokes, music blasting and being a light in hard times. I see Opinion creating graphic after graphic while still peeking her head up to take part of the conversation. I see Sports watching three games at once while bantering about some event happening at Suffolk. News has their head in the game, shouting out the occasional joke or two.

Experiencing this chaos week after week brings me peace. I met my best friends inside those cramped four walls and have memories I will always look back to. Graduating means I am being thrust into another unknown, something I haven’t had to feel in a long time. Even though my time at the Journal comes to an end, the friendships and bonds I made will follow me for the rest of my life.

Natalie Stinehour, Copy Editor

Throughout the last three years as a copy editor for The Suffolk Journal, I expected the long nights, breaking stories, crunching deadlines, and even the ever-present Oxford comma. What I did not expect was the truly beautiful community that lies behind the office door on the 9th floor of Sawyer.
As an English major, I came to my very first Journal meeting knowing exactly what I wanted to do — copy edit. Beelining towards the copy corner on my first production night, I was prepared to keep my head down, remove italics and go home. What I wasn’t prepared for was the truly amazing group of people who infiltrated the copy corner and played a huge part in making me the person I am today.
What started as a pure love for editing quickly turned into a bigger love for the community that The Journal has created. I am incredibly grateful for the experiences and people I have met over the last three years on the Journal, and I cannot wait to see what this amazing group of people will do in the coming years.

Michaela Buckley, Arts & Entertainment Editor

If there is one thing I will take away from my time at Suffolk University, it is all the people I was lucky enough to meet and love. From professors to classmates to my best friends. Suffolk gifted me some of the most important people in my life. I truly don’t know what I would have done without my friends here who have supported me all the way through, especially my Suffolk Journal family. I will always cherish our late production nights, and every time I eat Raising Cane’s chicken or sing karaoke to Hamilton songs, I’ll think of all of you. 

Things are always changing, but over the past few years I’ve learned to embrace that. I’m excited to keep growing and evolving. Thank you, Suffolk, for giving me the opportunity to travel the world, for helping me learn more about myself than I ever expected, for teaching me to be bold, and for reminding me to appreciate the small, wonderful moments that create the biggest memories.

Most of all, thank you for connecting me with some of the most incredible people I will ever know. Even though I might not always know what the future holds, I am certain that I’ve made lifelong friendships and that I’ve been shaped by love and friendship into the kind of person I want to be. That, to me, is enough.

I also want to thank everyone who has supported my writing and encouraged me to pursue journalism. The Suffolk Journal has given me so many opportunities to stay creative and excited about writing. I will deeply miss having a platform where I could shamelessly nerd out about movies and music. And, thank you to William Fithian, my fellow Arts & Entertainment editor, my right hand man and my best friend. I could never have survived these past two years without you.

I will look back on my college years with so much love and gratitude. If I could stay in school my whole life and explore every different major, I would. I wish it could be that simple, but I am endlessly grateful for this school and the education it has given me. As John Denver once said, “You are all that you can be, go on and be it.” Love is everywhere.

William Fithian, Arts & Entertainment Editor

If I have any regrets walking across the commencement stage in May, joining The Suffolk Journal won’t be one of them. From coming in as a scared, worried staff writer to serving as the Arts and Entertainment editor for the past year and a half, The Journal not only brought me some of my closest friends, it built a home for me.

It was clear when I joined this student organization that it was where I would learn how to strengthen my writing and become a well-rounded journalist. What I didn’t know is that this club will create my fondest college memories.

It is so easy to write about how I got to experience so many interesting opportunities, from reviewing concerts by my favorite artists to interviewing a Grammy award winner. But, the part I will miss the most is the people. The Journal will always be a place that is filled with laughter and joy.

Even when tensions are high on a Tuesday night, I know I can look across the office and see a sea of people smiling. News can be seen breaking the latest while arguing with Sports across the desk. Maren Halpin will be seen drafting the latest headline for the front page while plotting where to get dinner. Victoria White, can be seen being asked by me for the 100th time what font the layout should be in. Then, the Copy team is seen scanning each page asking each section if they are almost done, because to be real, we are all always tired. And next to me, Michaela Buckley, my partner in crime in the arts section, will be seen queuing up the next song, because if one thing is true, Arts will always be on aux.

As I prepare to step away from The Journal and continue my professional career, I will hold the little memories that kept me going. From our coffee runs to the weekly trip to Canes, I hold everyone so close to my heart. 

Here I was able to shoot for the moon, and to be honest, I think I’ve joined Artemis II on their mission and I went all the way around. The Journal gave me confidence, perseverance, grit and most importantly loving connections.

My time at The Journal would not be complete without the people that surround the organization. To every editor and writer I’ve had the privilege to work with, I am extremely grateful our paths have crossed. 

I owe a special thank you to Charlie St. Amand, the man, the myth, the legend, who always kept me inspired to keep pushing and improving. Without your constant support and guidance, I would not be the writer I am today.

To Michaela, I couldn’t have asked for a better person to be paired with. I think Keely Menyhart played match maker when she was choosing her new assistants. You make the arts section lively and I can’t imagine doing it without you.

Michaela and I are leaving the arts section in the hands of Lindsay Normand, and I couldn’t picture a better fit. You have the passion and drive to do so much more than I was able to do. I cannot wait to see how far you go.

Thank you to the entire staff at The Suffolk Journal, it has been my utmost pleasure and honor to work alongside all of you.

And don’t forget: Arts section, best section.

Mikey Najarian, Sports Editor

As I look back at four years at Suffolk, four years with The Suffolk Journal and three years as an editor, I look back at plenty of great memories, long nights in the newsroom and lots of incredible friendships.

I knew right away that The Journal was something I wanted to be a part of. I mean, I’m an aspiring sports journalist, why not start writing for the school paper and get published right away? I can confidently say joining The Journal was one of the best things that I’ve done here at Suffolk University.

The Journal gave me another home, it gave me another family and it gave me plenty of incredible experiences I otherwise would not have been a part of. Being part of such an awesome newsroom with so many people dedicated to putting out the best print and digital product possible motivated me in more ways than one to put my best foot forward as well. It helped me grow up a little bit and take the sports section to new heights, and it amazes me how far we’ve all come since first stepping into the newsroom.

There’s plenty of people to thank for four years of fun. I’ll start off with my predecessors in the sports section, JD Conte and Jamie Taris. Thank you for welcoming me so quickly, showing me the in’s and out’s of covering Suffolk sports and getting me started on the path to being an editor. The trust you put in me to take on a leading role in the section starting in my sophomore year is something I am forever thankful for.

My co-editor Joe Dimino is another person I can’t thank enough. The work you did for The Journal was nothing short of inspirational, whether it was cobbling together a few stories on short notice or making new graphics to catch some eyes, working alongside you to make the sports section the best it could be was an absolute joy every week.

Another massive thank you has to go to Maren Halpin, my Editor-in-Chief for the last two years. For giving me the freedom to expand our coverage and presence through Michael’s Minute, and for the confidence that I wouldn’t always have in myself, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I’ve done without your support.

One more thank you goes to Avery Martin, the incoming Sports Editor for the next year. The growth I’ve seen in your writing and coverage this year gave me the confidence that I’m leaving the sports section in very capable hands. I’m handing you the keys, and I’m excited to see what you do next.

In my four years with The Journal, I got more than I could have ever anticipated. I got another family, I got memories that will last a lifetime and I got a whole lot of fun every Tuesday night in the newsroom. I’ll always be proud to be a Suffolk Ram, and I’m especially proud to have written for The Journal.

Joe Dimino, Sports Editor

From writing profiles on some of Suffolk University’s top athletes, to writing about playoff runs and championship victories, it’s been an honor to write for The Suffolk Journal and share these stories with the community for the past five years. It’s really difficult to sum up what The Journal has meant to me over my five years writing here, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it. The Journal is where I met some of my closest friends on campus and shared some of my fondest memories throughout college.

To me, The Journal wasn’t just a club to join and get some extra clips on my resume, the Journal was a community that’s impossible to replicate. Even though a lot of us are parting ways after this semester comes to a close, I just know that the bonds we’ve created as a team will never be broken no matter where any of us end up. It makes me really happy to see that after we’re gone, The Journal will remain in great hands and will continue to help others develop and grow, not only as journalists, but as people just like it did for me.

None of this would be possible without the tireless work of our amazing staff writers and the incredible support of the Suffolk community. Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to be who we are and I hope our work over the past few years has made you proud.

Casey Wells, Staff Writer

Around four years ago, I made the best decision of my life. Certainly not the easiest, but definitely one of the best. I decided I was going to spend the next four years at Suffolk University to study broadcast journalism. I had no idea what this university had in store for me or what my future was going to look like. Who was I going to be friends with? What clubs was I planning on joining? What is my life going to look like in April of my senior year? I might not have all of the answers now, but I have a few ideas. I met my favorite people who healed and nourished my soul in an indescribable way. 

I found a club that found my love for dance, that I thought had been broken, and put the pieces back together. From my freshman year audition to performing at my last show later this week, Wicked has shown me nothing but pure love and support. It’s a place where I can be my true weird self and not ever feel a sense of judgement. Being on the executive board for the past three years has been a roller coaster of emotions. With all of the stress and planning that I do as communications, brings comfort and support from the loving team. 

To the team, I will miss all of the smiles and the laughs you bring to me daily. Your collective chaos and energy have made the stressful days worth every second. Dance was something that I left in the past, but has become such a fundamental part of who I am. Thank you for helping me rediscover my identity and healing something broken in me, then handing it to me shiny and new at the end.

The Suffolk Journal has not only given me hope for the current state of journalism, but introduced me to some of my dearest friends. The ninth floor of Sawyer has been my safe haven and a spot where I know I can find at least one person to seek comfort in. The Journal staff and editors have harbored such a safe and positive community, and I cannot wait to see it continue to shine. To all of the editors, thank you for your constant trust in me.

To Arts and Entertainment editors Will and Michaela, for accepting my nerdiness for music and allowing me to create my own column. “Casey’s Cassette” was such a wonderful outlet for me to express my musical thoughts without boring all of my friends to death, and a place for me to strengthen my writing skills.

You all made me a better journalist, writer and better person. Your hard work is so respectable, and I admire you all daily. Not many people can say that they dedicated that much effort and time in an organization during their college years. My gratitude is endless, I love you all.

Being a family and student orientation leader was one of the first times in my life I felt I had a true purpose. It is quite literally the best opportunity a Suffolk student can have. Staff from both years are forever bonded by our yellow yarn and shared memories. Late nights in Sargent during trivia to spending hot summer days together during training tie hearts together forever. 

Thank you Alex, Theresa and Rahma for giving me this life-altering opportunity. Telling students and families how much I love this university that you made me feel so safe in to begin with was the easiest job in the world. The orientation program placed a safe, loving and judgement-free community right into my hands. Making any sort of impact on incoming students and families is such a unique job that cannot be described — you just have to do it. 

The Suffolk community is so inherently special given our location and population. We have no choice but to come together and live the best out of every day. Whether that’s joining a club, office, Greek life, or just a good group of friends. We all have our niche here and you will find you people. And once you do? It’s like lightning in a bottle.

Suffolk has given me a place to call my second home forever. Boston will forever rest deep in my heart, no matter where life takes me. It feels like that day in April 2022 was yesterday, but that’s the funny thing about time. It truly passes so fast unless you notice. 

Notice getting coffee with a friend after class, waiting extra long for an elevator in Samia, or fidgeting with your wallet trying to get your student ID ready. Notice how your friends laugh, what makes them smile, what questions you still have for them. Say thank you to your favorite professors and administrators for their hard work. Noticing the small things, accepting them at face-value and fully experiencing them proves a life well lived. 

Without a doubt, Suffolk has changed my life and who I am. College is all about finding yourself and figuring out what you enjoy, what you hate, but there is no other university that could have given me an experience like this. I have no idea what is in store for me, but I know that Suffolk and the friends that I made here will forever stick around.

Maeve Fitzgerald, Staff Writer

There comes a time to say goodbye to everything: your childhood home, your first job, your favorite teacher. But what the world doesn’t prepare you for is saying goodbye to the people who made it so pivotal. I started writing sparsely for The Suffolk Journal when I was 18 – no idea what form an article took, no friends in The Journal. I wrote my first story: a concert review. I hopped on the Green Line to Back Bay for a concert at Berklee’s Red Room, my headphones blaring Ashley Kutcher and my notes app open eagerly. I got back to my freshman dorm that night and wrote the entire story, only to find that I was supposed to interview the opener and write about her set. I’d blown it – my first story and it was incorrect. But no one got frustrated or mad – instead, they complimented my writing, showed me the correct format and found a way to incorporate the opener in the story. The Journal has taught me the importance of collaboration, understanding and how to find the story amidst chaos and for that I am truly thankful. So for my final words in The Suffolk Journal, I say goodbye to this amazing paper by thanking the people within it. The countless interviews, edits and discussion. My college experience would be nowhere near the same without this beautiful outlet for creativity, current events and people. Thank you to The Suffolk Journal for the past four years, and thank you to the readers, I will miss it dearly. 

Tracy LaCara, Staff Writer

Before classes had even started during my first semester of freshman year, September of 2022, my friends and I were walking around the fair that was promoting student run clubs on campus. I walked by a booth with a newspaper on it, and a sign that wrote “The Suffolk Journal.” Behind it stood eager students, looking for young new writers, saying “It’s great for journalism majors.” This perked my interest, and I decided to go to the first pitch meeting, still hesitant, to see what it was all about. This resulted in four years of covering local Suffolk sports, reaching out to coaches and players for interviews, and taking the train to many women’s soccer games in East Boston. My time with The Journal was fruitful in more ways than one, because of these stories, I was able to secure internships, one with professional rugby team, the New England Free Jacks, and another with one of Boston’s main television stations, WHDH, on their sports desk. Along with these opportunities, The Journal also gave me friendships that truly shaped my college experience for the better. As I prepare to walk across the stage at graduation in less than a month, I would like to thank The Suffolk Journal for helping me set up for real world journalism experience, and providing me with memories and experiences I will never forget.