Senior Memoirs: Hubert Piskorz

Photo by Gerardo Trujillo

I started journalism and writing news stories during my senior year of high school. It was a super professional and organized environment compared to my other classes, as we functioned more like an actual news team than just a class, with free rein to do whatever we wanted. I loved doing it, as I had great mentors and super creative classmates who are now developing news for new channels and serving as anchors.

I enjoyed my high school experience a lot and learned a lot, but going into college, I kind of forgot about it as I chose to pursue finance instead of journalism. The first two years, I put thoughts of journalism and writing aside as I focused on my classes and other extracurriculars I wanted to be part of.

I remember the first time I saw the physical copies of The Leader around campus, and being interested in reading the paper. They would get my attention every time I would see fresh copies in the news basket. Semesters would go on, and it would always be in the back of my head whether I should try to join the paper.

I had always thought you needed to be a multimedia or journalism major to really get your foot in the door, but when I saw last semester that The Leader was looking for people to join, I knew I should take the chance. So, at the beginning of spring, I reached out to Ian during winter break and sent him some of my high school work. He responded quickly and told me to stop by their booth during the involvement fair.

A couple of weeks after meeting Ian in person, I was in my first group meeting with The Leader and working on my first piece, a multimedia video story about the Elmhurst University Men’s Lacrosse team and their fight to win the CCIW championship. This was definitely one of my favorite stories I did, as I got to interview a fellow classmate and learn more about the team. What makes this experience even better is that the team recently won the regular season CCIW title a month and a half after that story came out.

One of my other favorite stories was one I wrote for our April Fools edition of The Leader, called The Follower, which was an edition I had never done before. It was super fun creating a totally fake story about a student using plastic utensils as a makeshift throne, being creative, and incorporating some university buildings into the fake students’ names.

However, I wouldn’t have gotten started so quickly with writing and creating for The Leader if it weren’t for Ian’s help, as he took time to show me everything I needed to know about reserving, recording, and taking care of their camera equipment. He gave me a detailed yet concise breakdown of everything I needed to know, and he was always available to meet for the equipment drop-off and to answer any other questions I had when first using the equipment, such as the GH5 camera.

As someone who is more reserved, Ian was super kind and down to earth, giving me lots of creative freedom to do whatever news story I wanted while also making me feel like I was part of the team and not just some random addition.

It was great and super fulfilling to get back into writing stories and being part of a team environment that was chill and laid-back but also very professional, not just another club to be a part of. I got flashbacks to my senior year writing for my high school’s paper while writing for The Leader. It really helped remind me of what I missed about journalism the years I didn’t do it: the creativity of telling someone’s story and getting to know them through interviews, while also reinvigorating my natural curiosity, from doing video stories on EU’s athletics and the MBA program, to funny comedic stories and doing my own opinion pieces on interesting topics.

Joining The Leader has given me the opportunity to bring out my creative side through video creation and story writing, while also pushing me out of my comfort zone to try new things. The environment at The Leader is awesome; every meeting has something new to talk about, and everyone in the organization is super committed, creative, and passionate about what they do.

I’m so glad I took the opportunity to become part of this special group, and I was able to make my mark by telling the stories of others in our tight-knit EU community. I’m super grateful to be part of The Leader; my experience has made my time at EU that much more memorable and special. Congrats to everyone for their hard work and dedication in making each issue so great.