Throughout my two se­mesters at Central Ar­izona College (CAC), I learned so much. Not only did I learn from books on specific subjects, but I learned life skills as well. My teachers were a big part of my success at CAC, being able to talk to them before and after class was really helpful.

During my first semes­ter at CAC I was in Professor Tatterson’s Mass Communi­cation class. During the se­mester she asked me if I was interested in becoming an editor for The Cactus. I was quite nervous because I had never been a part of anything like this before. Something I enjoyed and I found really fun was being able to write freely on things and getting to voice my opinion.

After my first day at Ari­zona State University (ASU), I realized going to school at CAC really prepared me for college at the university level.

My chosen career is jour­nalism, so for me being a part of The Cactus was really beneficial. The main reason I wanted to share my experi­ence at CAC and The Cactus is to help inspire students to be a part of The Cactus. One of my favorite parts of work­ing on The Cactus was the people I worked with. Profes­sor Tatterson is an amazing teacher and mentor. She has turned The Cactus around from a boring, barely rec­ognizable newspaper into a newspaper that is well worth a read.

As I continue with my journey, at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journal­ism, I will always remem­ber my experiences at CAC. Whether the experience was working on the paper or just being in a class and learning new things. I would recom­mend going to CAC to anyone coming out of high school or going back to school to get a degree. The reason for this is that you can use CAC to your advantage to find what you want to do and CAC will help you get there as long as you put in the work.

One of my favorite expe­riences at The Cactus was climbing up the side of the mountain behind the school to take pictures for the holi­day edition of the paper. This is just one of the things that we did that shows how many cool things you get to do and experience while working at the newspaper. You can do so much to contribute. You can write for the paper, take photos, or do the layout. You can submit poetry, artwork, or suggest an idea for an ar­ticle. Now I am not going to lie about the class, it does re­quire hard work but as long as you stay on top of your work you can learn so much. The best way to describe the paper is that it was an expe­rience of a life time. I mean how many people get to say that they were on the staff of a college newspaper!