Various Graphic staff members from the past four years pose for a photo after a production night in the Graphic newsroom. The newsroom often felt like home for Managing Editor Tony Gleason. Photos courtesy of Tony Gleason
In my home, I have a room to work in, a place to sleep and an area to hang out and relax.
No, I’m not talking about my house in Danvers, Mass., nor am I talking about any of the dorms or apartments I’ve lived in as a Pepperdine student.
Rather, I’m talking about CCB 143, the Graphic newsroom. This location and Pepperdine Graphic Media have been my home for eight semesters now. After my first year at the Graphic, I said the work I was doing felt fulfilling — three years later, that feeling has only amplified.
Throughout my time as a college journalist, I’ve been lucky that so much of my work includes having conversations with people younger versions of me would have dreamed to have.
My favorite conversation is when I spoke on a zoom call with Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, for two hours about a side of baseball history not given the spotlight it deserves.
When work gets stressful and I need to rest, I can always lie down on the couches in the newsroom and take a nap, which I have done countless times.
Director of PGM Elizabeth Smith once had to ask me not to sleep in there while she’s teaching JOUR 345 — or any class for that matter.
Most importantly though, the newsroom has been a vessel for deep, genuine connections.
Whether it was making plans to go to Taco Bell after the final production with former staff members Jerry Jiang, Sam Torre and Alec Matulka, Creative Director Amanda Monahan and I making the background on every desktop a goofy photo we took for an April Fools’ Day joke last year or talking sports with Mike Bresnahan before class starts, I’ve been surrounded by a community that has welcomed me and given me a space to that allows me to be myself.
Beyond moments like those, there’s also the simpler moments at the countless senior leader meetings, budget and pitch meetings, production nights I’ve been a part of. Reading staff compliments during our weekly budget meeting and cracking jokes at the table late into production always makes me look forward to the next time I enter CCB 143.
While having fun, we’re also creating some of the best work by a collegiate newsroom.
Production nights can be long and stressful sometimes, but I never doubt we’re going to crush it and I’m always so proud to hold the final product a few days later. I’m grateful for the amazing PGM staff and it means more than words can say that I get to be their managing editor.
As the rest of my life goes on, I know I’ll find other places to be my home, but for right now the list is pretty short. The house my parents raised me and the dorms and apartments with the friends I used to pray to have one day are all my homes.
CCB 143 is also my home, and I hope the day comes where I get called back as a professional journalist to help the next generation of PGM students.
As I enter the great beyond known as post-college life, I have one thing left to say.
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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Contact Tony Gleason via email: anthony.gleason@pepperdine.edu or Instagram: @tonygleasonjournalist