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.

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:

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.

How to survive your reporting semester

Photo courtesy of mojourcomm via Wikimedia Commons

By Ryan Levi

We have a unique opportunity as journalism students at Mizzou. We get to work in professional newsrooms as part of our course work. Every day, students report for an NBC affiliate, an NPR member station and a community newspaper.

It's great experience, and it's also a lot of work. But you can get through it. I asked around on Twitter and Facebook and got some tips and advice from folks who have been there and done it.

Perfect podcasts for your busy day

By Ryan Levi

I love podcasts. Like a lot.

But I have a problem.

Photo by Flickr user Patrick Breitenbach

I love them so much that I want to give them my undivided attention so I don't miss anything. That means that multitasking favorites like reading, working, studying or any other brain-engaging activities are not an option when I listen to podcasts. These restrictions sadly limit the amount time I can spend listening to podcasts so length has become one of the primary factors in determining which podcasts I listen to.

I've divided podcasts into three length categories that help me maximize my precious podcast time.

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.

#MyPersonal45

By Ryan Levi

Photo courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski

Being a journalist is a stressful job. Being a journalist in the digital era where we are constantly connected and able to report and produce content anywhere we can get a cell signal is even more stressful. So how can journalists avoid over stressing and maintain a work-life balance?

Can Vine and Snapchat be reporting tools?

By Ryan Levi

By Snapchat, Inc. [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the #ONA14 Conference in Chicago this past weekend, so I spent some time on the conference website looking at what I missed. In addition to the great work done by the folks in the ONA Student Newsroom, I found two short videos which kind of blew me away: two journalists talking about using Snapchat and Vine in their newsrooms.

5 tips for young journalists from J-School grads

By Ryan Levi

Wikimedia Commons image from user Mojourcomm

As part of my extensive summer reading list (highlights so far include Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams), I took a look through our Letters Home series, a collection of letters from J-School graduates to students currently studying at the finest journalism school in the world. Below are five big-picture takeaways from their letters.

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.