A Year In Review

Graphic by Shae-Lynn Henderson, EIC; photo by Grayson Morris, Co-Podcasting Director

Editor in Chief

As I sit with my laptop and write my end of year reflection and make edits to our the rest of the team's pieces, I am filled with an immense sense of sadness and equal parts gratitude. The Meredith Herald has been an integral part of my Meredith experience since my freshman year. Being Editor in Chief over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years was the cherry on an already wonderful cake. Taking the opportunity to look back over my time at the helm of our college newspaper, I reflect with the most gratitude at what has been a humbling, rewarding and meaningful journey.

The Meredith Herald would not be what it is without the wonderful work of The Herald staff and of course you, our readers. My goal for the publication was to find new and exciting ways to engage our audience and really build on the sense of community that a newspaper has the potential to foster.

It was a great deal of fun to work on the word searches and crosswords for people to complete. It was always wholesome to walk through the buildings and see them filled out. In addition, I really enjoyed working with various campus organizations to spotlight what they were up to throughout the semester. What started out as us reaching out to groups, ultimately led to organizations reaching out to us wanting to be featured, which reaffirmed our goal of highlighting the diversity of campus organizations. Another huge highlight for me has been the “Instagram Interviews.” To our interviewers, interviewees and Destiny for making it a reality, thank you! I had so much fun getting to meet people across campus and even be behind the camera at times.

In terms of content, it is always fun to see what our writers come up with. The topics are always thought-provoking and leave you with a greater message. Words cannot express how wonderful it has been to work alongside a dedicated, intelligent, funny, and involved team. Our team has a diverse array of interests and are pursuing a variety of majors. Our team is there because of our passion for community and writing, and I truly believe it is reflected in the writing itself. Thank you to everyone who has made our paper a reality. We hope that you as readers see yourself reflected in these stories and see the passion put into articles online or in print. In particular, it is a joy to present our special color editions each semester, which we use to highlight and signify important events on campus, such as celebrating our seniors.

On a more personal note, I got to write more this last year. Between interviewing with President Sapp, and sharing my thoughts in hot takes, nostalgia and other topics, I hang up my EIC role, feeling fulfilled that I got to write and play a role in fostering community for the past four years.

With no way of really quantifying my experience, all I can say is thank you! Your continued support of The Herald is appreciated and I cannot wait to see what Grayson and the team has in store for the upcoming academic year. Happy LDOC, good luck with finals and stay tuned! 

I hope you will take the time to reflect with us as an editorial board of our year in review.

With love, 

Shae-Lynn Henderson

Editor in Chief

Associate Editor

As my time with The Herald comes to a close, I am filled with immense gratitude for the amazing team I worked with this year, and I am proud of the writing and work that we’ve produced. From our Corn issue to the Senior issue, we’ve produced amazing work that highlights the students and accomplishments of our campus. Our goal for our content this year has been to remain student-focused, including weekly student-organization spotlights, and our writers have tackled each article with a keen ear for our readers’ interests. I am immensely proud of our strong writers who cover critical events through a variety of media. We’ve expanded our social media presence and even covered President Aimee Sapp’s inauguration through video and audio interviews, which I had the joy of collecting alongside Grayson Morris, our Co-Podcasting Director and future Editor in Chief. While I love this new media use and hope to see it grow for The Herald, I still love a written article, and I especially loved writing a piece highlighting some student research for our online CSA Day issue. Concluding my time with the paper as its Associate Editor is immensely rewarding, and I cannot wait to watch the publication continue to grow under next year’s leadership.  

By Cady Stanley, Associate Editor

Features Editor

This year was my second on the editorial board and third overall at The Herald. The features section holds a special place in my heart because it covers all things Meredith.  I’m always grateful for our talented writers and their willingness to go above and beyond for The Herald. 

The features section also opens up conversations between smaller organizations and campus at large. Articles like our organization spotlights allow people on campus to talk about the awesome things they do for students here. This section is truly a time capsule and I’m excited to continue and see what is in store next year.

By Liese Devine, Features Editor

News Editor

As always, the Herald staff has worked diligently throughout this year to report important events happening on and off campus, in Raleigh and around the world. Working alongside The Herald’s passionate and talented team of writers and editors, I’ve had the privilege of helping tell the stories that shape both our campus community and the world at large. From covering important student initiatives to chasing down last-minute updates from administration, we’ve strived to keep our readers informed, engaged and empowered. 

It’s no secret that this was an election year, and a lot of the news pieces written and published over the past few months were focused on the lead-up to and results from the U.S. presidential elections held in Nov. 2024. Our writers have worked diligently throughout the past year to report on political happenings and how they impact students at Meredith and around the nation, covering impactful events ranging from presidential debates to the inauguration. 

Beyond the political, our writers have also focused on keeping the Meredith community informed about events happening on campus and in Raleigh. From sharing information about study abroad opportunities to publishing information on how students can help support humanitarian efforts such as WINGS’s toy drive and SGA’s Hurricane Helene aid initiative, our writers have helped the broader Meredith community stay up to date on important issues. 

As always, I’ve had a phenomenal time working with the team this year and am so excited to see where the next year takes us!

By Clary Taylor, News Editor

A&E Editor

This academic year was my first being on the editorial board for The Herald, and it  has given me many opportunities to learn, create, succeed and face challenges. Editing for my fellow Meredith Herald members has been my favorite all year long as well as a few other highlights. Under the A&E section, our team has  covered a wide variety and arrangement of topics that are categorized under the art and entertainment umbrella. Articles were published about events happening on Meredith’s campus, like the film festival and musical performances, and around the globe, like what's new on Netflix and comic conventions. This past semester has especially been filled with film and television articles as that is a topic Meredith Herald members are always inspired by and there is always lots happening in the pop culture world that we want to highlight for the Meredith community. 

I joined Destiny Calvin on the Angels After Hours podcast to record my first time on the show. During the episode I joined Destiny for we discussed television shows, particularly what makes true crime dramas good and bad. Personally I love writing but being able to just talk and “yap” with Destiny for over an hour was so enjoyable and fun. I feel that the podcast is a time for Herald members to be a little more informal and it gives a peek into what The Herald meetings are like. At 5:30 every Monday in Lux 203, I know I’m going to laugh and joke around, even while we work as a group on planning the print editions and online articles. 

This academic year I was able to write several opinion articles in many of the print editions and I am always thankful for having the opportunity to voice my opinions about almost whatever I want. Thank you to Shae for being open to hearing my long winded explanations of what I would like to write about and a huge shout out to Elaina for editing my out of the box articles. All of the members of The Herald are fantastic writers, editors, videographers, podcasters, and everything in between. I know that all of the talent in the members will be showcased in the years to come during our college career and beyond.

By Kailey Wurr, A&E Editor  

Opinion Editor

Like every year, The Herald staff did not disappoint with their array of opinions from pop culture pieces to social critiques. Earlier this academic year, we talked about the election, what it was like to hear the results, and what it’s like to learn about the election period from the lens of an international student. In addition to that, we also talked a lot about celebrities. Why do Youtubers make music? And why did Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson? There were also other conversations, like the ethics of dramatized murder series based on real events, and capitalistic schemes like “Prime Day Deals” and the “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” exclusive streaming event. 

Moving into the spring semester, we talked about nostalgia and the feeling of reaching life milestones while facing the pressures of change that come with New Year’s Resolutions. We also continued to talk about pop culture topics like the issues caused by algorithm-based content from TikTok users complaining about uncurated recipes, the experience of physical media over digital media, to the fresh perspectives and experiences of indie films. It is also worth mentioning the end of an era for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with John Cena’s retirement (Kailey and I are the in-house WWE fans that will always lobby for a WWE piece). 

While these are only a few brief mentions of the opinion articles from this academic year, I thought it was really interesting to see how much I have in common with The Herald staff. My favorite pieces were the ones that criticized current media engagement and how we tend to rely a lot on popular media and algorithm-based content to surround ourselves with things that can get a bit repetitive. But I also really enjoyed the social pieces that criticized the pressure to make dramatic changes for the New Year and the despair that comes with nostalgia. I also had my own opinion pieces this year that people seemed to like, which criticized the way we engage in activism and how that can affect others. 

I can’t wait to learn more about the staff’s interests and opinions moving forward, and I am excited about all the opinion articles to come! 

By Elaina Irving, Opinion Editor

Podcast Editors

One of the highlights of my final year with The Herald was recording part two of my favorite films podcast episode for Angels After Hours, a personal passion project I loved bringing to life. The podcast team also recorded our first group episode, which was such a fun and perspective experience. This semester was the first time I officially wrote articles for The Herald, which was scary but rewarding. I also teamed up with Shae to film and edit Instagram reels, tapping into my video editing passion. I had so much fun making them! And lastly, watching SNL sketches and the “What About Kevin” video, which brought some happy and hilarious memories.

By Destiny Calvin, Co-Podcasting Director

This past year has been especially exciting for Angels After Hours. Since we’ve broadened our team, we’ve been able to highlight new voices, new topics and more episodes for everyone to enjoy. It’s been a pleasure to work with this team, and I’ve valued every meeting and every podcast I’ve had the opportunity to speak on or edit. We’re especially fond of our music and movie-based episodes, our staff always has a lot to say on these topics.

In the fall we kicked off the new semester with a conversation about our favorite music from the summer. This episode featured five hosts for the first time, and it was so much fun to pack into the podcast studio to reminisce on our favorite songs of the summer together. We covered a variety of topics in the fall running from Formula 1 to lesbian breakups. The spring semester was kicked off with another musical discussion, our much beloved Spotify wrapped episode. We were very excited to introduce a radio show segment to the podcast that we look forward to seeing more of next year!

While most of our content is lighthearted and media-centric, I’m the most proud of our human interest episodes. These episodes have been very special to me as I’ve been able to share what I’ve learned through my college experience. They’ve also brought us closer as a team and I cherish the friendships I’ve made through these episodes. I highly recommend checking out our “Complexity of Labels” episode if you’re interested in a meaningful conversation around sexuality, self-image and relationships. 

I’m incredibly proud of this team and the variety of topics we’ve been able to cover. Having this space to speak our opinions on music, movies, and personal experiences has been liberating and so much fun! We’re very sad to bid goodbye to our lovely Co-Director Destiny as she graduates and moves onto her next great project. Nevertheless, the podcast will continue strong with more of our favorite episodes under Kailey. 

Thank you to all our hosts, editors, and listeners, you have made this experience so special to me. I’m excited to see what music and movie recommendations await in the podcast’s future.

Grayson Morris, Co-Podcasting Director

Copy Editors

As I reflect on my time as a Meredith Herald editor, one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had has been the work I’ve done for our podcast, Angels After Hours. I originally joined the podcast team with the sole intention of editing episodes, as my comfort zone most often lies behind the scenes. Never did I expect that I would co-host a total of five podcast episodes in my two years on the team, building confidence in my self-expression and public speaking abilities in the process. I am also grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to copy edit for The Herald for the past three years, as I’ve been continuously inspired by our team of talented writers.

By Caroline O'Daniel, Copy Editor

I’ve been copy editing for about two years, and one of my favorite parts is the sheer variety of articles I get to read. Meredith always seems to have something going on, and it’s exciting to see Meredith’s community represented through our paper. Beyond correcting grammar and keeping everything AP stylebook compliant, my job is to fact-check and ensure that The Herald maintains a high standard of journalism, and I hope to help continue to keep The Herald’s standards high in the 2025-26 school year! From new columns to social media content to student organization spotlights, I hope our readers will stick with us for another year of student journalism.

By Lola Mestas, Copy Editor