Each year, graduating editors are given 30 final column inches to reflect on their time at The Hatchet, published in the final issues of the year. Journalists historically used “-30-” to signify the end of a story.
You don’t need raw journalistic talent to work at The Hatchet – you just need to care.
I learned that lesson early on at GW. In October of my freshman year, I hurried back from a Halloween party to write a Hatchet story. It was one of my first – I’d heard students were being unnecessarily sent to the GW Hospital for intoxication, and I wanted to get the story right. I didn’t even bother to change out of my hot dog costume, and I ended up falling asleep with my hands on the keyboard, trying to get my first draft done.
Media Credit: Courtesy of Kiran Hoeffner-Shah
Each year, graduating editors are given 30 final column inches to reflect on their time at The Hatchet, published in the final issues of the year. Journalists historically used “-30-” to signify the end of a story.
In my three years on staff, I probably set the record for the most missed staff meetings.
I never thought of missing the meeting as an absence, I just figured that everyone else was perpetually early – and I was fashionably late. There’s only so far that logic could take me, but someone really should have foreseen the problem when I was 30 minutes late to my staff interview.
The Society of Professional Journalists named The Hatchet the best all-around student newspaper in a regional awards ceremony this weekend, in addition to 14 other honors.
Mark of Excellence award winners from Region 2, which includes collegiate newspapers in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and North Carolina, will move on to SPJ’s national competition in New Orleans this September.
The Hatchet won in the following categories:
Best all-around student newspaper: The GW Hatchet
Editorial writing: The GW Hatchet staff editorials by The GW Hatchet Editorial Board
Congrats, GW – you’ve made it 200 years strong.
Since your establishment two centuries ago, you’ve changed nicknames, altered admissions practices and participated in tons of protests. In commemoration of this milestone, the editorial board deliberated GW’s best and worst moments. Opinions editor Hannah Thacker looks into the history of the Colonials moniker; contributing opinions editor Andrew Sugrue lays out the evolution of GW’s tuition costs; culture editor Anna Boone comments on campus expansion; managing editor Parth Kotak breaks down the racial history of GW; managing director Kiran Hoeffner-Shah talks about student activism; design editor Olivia Columbus weighs in on gender equality; and sports editor Emily Maise sheds light on the history of sports.