Student Life sat down with the incoming Editors-in-Chiefs to talk about their thoughts on journalism and their goals for the upcoming year. Nina Giraldo (NG) formerly served as Senior News Editor and Avi Holzman (AH) formerly served as Managing News Editor. Their tenure started on April 1.

SL: Nina, why are you drawn to the world of journalism?

NG: It’s the perfect combination of everything I’m interested in, like English and history. I think there’s nothing else that makes me as passionate as journalism does. The work of it is so real, like you’re actively documenting that history. And so I think I’ve always been attracted to the rawness of it in that you’re talking to real people, and they’re telling you their stories, and then it’s your job to tell that story in as digestible and objective [a] way as possible.

SL: What are you most excited about for the upcoming year on the paper?

NG: I’m really excited to maintain the momentum that we gained from this last year in our success in recruitment and retention, so I’m looking forward to continuing to build up that culture.

SL: Why are you excited about working with Avi?

NG: I really admire his passion — he’s very driven. He’s really good at managing people and understanding what makes a team work and function. My weaknesses are his strengths, so there’s a lot I’m constantly learning from him.

SL: What do you view as the value of Student Life on campus in this coming year?

NG: The ultimate goal is to open the readers’ eyes to what is happening on campus, whether that be campus politics, new research, or new speakers. WashU is a very vibrant campus, and we want the student body to be as informed as possible. At the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to help facilitate dialogue between students and between students and the administration as accurately as possible.

SL: What’s a piece of writing that’s influenced your thinking about the world?

NG: One piece of writing that sticks out to me is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot. I read it for the first time in high school, and I know that it’s supposed to be an anxious poem, and maybe I read my own optimism into it, but I think it’s so beautiful. 

SL: Any other thoughts for the people reading the morning newsletter?

NG: I’m super excited to help manage this paper and the information they will be reading, and I hope that people feel they’re being represented accurately by Student Life.

SL: Avi, why are you drawn to the world of journalism?

AH: I like telling stories. I grew up really enthralled by fantasy stories like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. And I know those are really epic tales — and the idea of doing that but about something that’s real and [that] impacts people’s lives really draws me to journalism. And that’s what I think that we do.

SL: What are you most excited about for the upcoming year on the paper?

AH: I’m most excited to see how we grow, both in terms of new kinds of content and new people coming into the paper. I think this year has been a tough year, and we’ve navigated it really well, and I’m really proud of us. And hopefully next year will be an easier year, and we can really get a chance to thrive.

SL: Why are you excited about working with Nina?

AH: Nina and I have worked together for a really long time, and you really trust her with everything. She’s a very, very close friend of mine, and she’s also a really amazing journalist and a really amazing writer. And she’s one of the best people I’ve ever met at connecting with a new audience and building a relationship in one sitting. So I’m really excited to work with her.

SL: What do you view as the value of Student Life on campus in this coming year?

AH: We provide the context for a WashU experience so that people understand not just what is going on, but why it’s happening and what are the characters and the forces at play.

SL: What’s a piece of writing that’s influenced your thinking about the world?

AH: “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis has really influenced the way I see the world and the idea of “inside baseball” and how that impacts the world around us. And that’s also why I’m motivated to do journalism — to take complicated stories that people in power don’t want the average person to understand and put them in words so that they can be understood, because we all deserve to know why stuff is happening the way it is around us. And that book, I think, is a really good example of that, and he’s one of the best at building characters that can help move you as a reader through a complicated subject.

SL: Any other thoughts for the people reading this in the morning newsletter?

AH: Scroll to the bottom, click on all the links — they’re all quality. And I’m really excited about this upcoming year.