Thanks for two great years

Photo by Mark Hinojosa

From the Board

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since we were first elected to serve on ONA Mizzou's executive board. In that time, we've flown drones, brought a world-class storyteller to campus, encouraged self-care and more. We hope that you all have gotten as much out of ONA Mizzou these past two years as we have, and as we move onto new jobs and experiences in new cities, we wanted to take this chance to say goodbye.

Event Recap: Jessica Abel

Jessica Abel talks to an event attendee at a book signing following 
her presentation on Wednesday, March 23. Photo by Sarah Darby

By Maria Davison

Master cartoonist and storyteller Jessica Abel traveled to the University of Missouri this week to teach attendees the art of telling amazing stories. 

Jessica's latest book, "Out on the Wire," is a graphic novel that explains how the biggest names in narrative radio (like Ira Glass of This American Life, Jad Abumrad of Radiolab and Alex Blumberg formerly of Planet Money) craft the most compelling stories on the air.

If you missed Jessica's talk, check out our recap to see what you missed. 

Choosing the right portfolio site for you

Photo by The City College First-Year Writing Program

By Maria Davison

So you want to build a personal portfolio site, but you're not sure where to begin? Picking the right platform to best showcase your work can seem like a daunting task, if only slightly less daunting than coding it yourself. But an outstanding online portfolio will help you out when it comes to applying for everything from your first internship to your dream job. The key is picking one that showcases your work at its best and makes it shine.

I asked a few ONA Mizzou Exec members and some other friends of ONA Mizzou to share the pros and cons of several common portfolio sites. Here's what they had to say:

Three simple dos and don'ts for every Twitter user

By Maria Davison

Image by Jurgen Appelo

Everyone says that you should be using Twitter. And they’re probably right. Twitter is a great tool for doing journalism, for consuming journalism and for, like, knowing things about the world. But like most social media, there is a wrong way and a right way to use Twitter.

Do: Share articles that you find interesting

When I say interesting, I mean things that are actually interesting to you. Share content that actually deals with things you care about. I am a big art and history nerd and scrolling back through my Twitter, a lot of the things I share fall into those categories. Stories about Pompeii and Google Art Project and a long-lost Stradivarius are some recent personal favorites.

Six takeaways from ONA15

By the ONA Mizzou Executive Board

Photo by Sarah Darby

The Online News Association's annual conference is recognized as one of the premier conferences for all things related to digital media and the future of news. Every year, huge numbers of journalists travel to the conference to learn about new journalism technologies and to discuss ways to advance the industry.

If you're like our executive board, you couldn't make it to the conference in Los Angeles last week for ONA15. But, we're always interested to see what happened, and one of the best things about an online organization is that they're really good about putting things online. As we dug through the conference content, here were a few of our favorite sessions.

Welcome to our new board!

By Katy Mersmann

This is my last post as the president of ONA Mizzou and I'm sad that my time is at an end. I've had a great time with our events and Open Newsrooms. I'm thrilled to introduce our new executive board (they should look pretty familiar), and I'm so excited to see what they do!

Sarah Darby, President:

@_SCDarby

Hello, my name is Sarah Darby, and I am excited to be the new president of ONA Mizzou! I am currently a junior convergence journalism major and entrepreneurship minor, and I am originally from the Kansas side of Kansas City. My love for digital media began when I helped launch my high school newspaper's first website. I saw how engaging online content could reach audiences in new ways, and I pursued a number of digital news internships in college as a result. I have worked at news startups in the Midwest and in Buenos Aires. I have also worked as a social media coordinator for ONA Mizzou and Mizzou's Women in Engineering Center. This summer I hope to further develop these skills and interests as a digital news intern at the Kansas City Star.

Some tips from home and abroad

Image from Flickr user Paul Downey

By Ryan Levi

The end of this semester is a time of transition for ONA Mizzou. Three of our executive members (Maria Davison, A.J. Feather, and myself) are getting ready to study abroad in the spring while three more (Emerald O'Brien, Madison Feller, and Sarah Darby) are preparing to return from overseas and take their spots. We have all learned a lot this semester and we want to impart some of what we learned to you all.

Meet the 2014-2015 ONA Mizzou student leaders

President: Katy Mersmann

I'm Katy Mersmann and I'm a current junior and international convergence journalism major. My first love is the written word (I came to Mizzou to be a print reporter) but quickly discovered the flexibility and excitement of working with different platforms to get the story out. I'm passionate about the potential for social media crowdsourcing to provide richer narratives and different perspectives on the news we see everyday.

I'm originally from Olathe, Kan. (although I've never liked the Jayhawks!), and I just spent a semester in Washington, D.C., interning in the medical unit at CNN. After graduation, I dream of taking my skills on the road as a "backpack reporter" and covering stories that don't get much traction.

Outside of the j-school, I like to eat, run, watch Mizzou football and talk about Harry Potter with anyone who will listen.