General Information
The Voyager has been the voice of University of West Florida students, faculty and staff since 1968. It is the only independent student-run newspaper at UWF.
The Voyager is brand new each Wednesday. Each issue highlghts news, arts and sports stories, as well as opinion columns, that focus primarily on UWF and greater Pensacola.
One year, a mysterious former Voyager staff painted a very large paper banner to put above the outside doorway closest to our office. Through hurricanes and major building renovation, it still hangs there. The banner sports a version of The Voyager's logo, and what the former staff thought to be the paper's missionstatement:
"To further an environment where students can gain work experience and knowledge, while improving writing, communication and business skills; to promote artistic practice in advertising, layout and photography, and encourage involvement in campus issues and events; to provide information on campus, local and national events that are of interest to the students, faculty and staff of the University of West Florida, while striving to bring the local community together with the University in a highly professional manner."
One very altruistic run-on sentence, to be sure. Minus the grammar problems, it is a mission we try to uphold.
We welcome any and all comment and criticism. Please contact an appropriate staff member directly by using the
contact information included in "Voyager Staff" to your left, or e-mail editor@thevoyager.net We
certainly appreciate your readership.
Staff List Information
Below is a list of current staff members of The Voyager. The contact information that they have listed is to the right.
The Voyager Staff
- Mike Greear
- Editor-in-chief
- Email:
- editor@thevoyager.net
- Hello again, all you lovely Voyager readers! I’m Mike Greear, and I’ll be the editor-in-chief for The Voyager during the 2010-11 school year. A few of you may remember my name from last year, as I was the Opinions Editor during the fall semester and the News Editor during the spring semester. Throughout the 2009-10 school year we strove to bring you the greatest college newspaper that we could possibly muster. The result was one of the greatest years in Voyager history, topped off by an epic victory for our school at the Southeast Journalism Conference last February. As Editor-in-Chief, I will be continuing this strive for excellence. In addition to providing the campus with a first-rate print newspaper each week, I am dedicating my tenure as editor toward re-invigorating The Voyager’s presence on the web. Our current web site is little more than what I’d call a “shovel site,” a place to archive our print articles for people who’d rather experience the paper electronically. What I’d like to do is take full advantage of the site’s software to bring you the latest up-to-the-minute news briefs, as well as supplemental content that you can’t find in the print edition, such as videos and podcasts. I hope you’ll enjoy what we have in store for the coming months at The Voyager. It’s going to be an exciting year!
- Kaycee Lagarde
- News editor
- Email:
- news@thevoyager.net
- Hey I’m Kaycee Lagarde and I’ll be the News Editor for the Voyager this semester! I wrote for the Voyager last year, and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you’ll like it too. Here’s a little about me: I’m a senior majoring in print journalism and minoring in Spanish. I just finished up an internship at the Pensacola News Journal this summer, where I did mostly photography and some writing. It taught me a whole lot, and I really enjoyed it. I’m not really sure why I got into journalism, but I think I’m going to stick with it. I guess I just like writing and photography, and I hope that I can use my skills to give people the information they want or need. Some may say journalism is “dying,” but people will always want to know what’s going on around them. I hope that the news section of the Voyager will have stories in it that people really want to read. My goal for this semester is to have newsworthy stories that still interest students. I can’t do anything without you guys though, and I’m completely open to any input! I’m new to this whole editor thing, so I’ll need all the help I can get. Let’s make this a great semester for the paper!
- Josh de Leon
- A&E editor and Managing Editor
- Email:
- ae@thevoyager.net
- Hello fellow students, new and returning alike. My name is Josh de Leon and I’m your Arts & Entertainment/Managing editor for the semester. The staff and I will be informing you about what’s going in music, movies and campus as well as local events and with all the things going on in the fall there will a lot to print. I’m in my senior year at UWF and am majoring in english writing. Over the summer I changed it from print journalism. Although I’ve enjoyed the work and those who I’ve worked with for the past year, I decided that pursuing creative writing, or at least studying it, is what I’m truly going to enjoy. Then why stay on with The Voyager you may ask? I stay on because I like the work, the staff and mostly the invaluable experience gained from an environment that requires one to come up with fresh ideas, listen to and provide constructive criticism, coordinating and helping others to turn out a good product on a weekly basis and being able to do it quickly, efficiently and under strict deadlines. My goal for the paper is to produce a fine section that is informative but most of all fun to read and my goal in the newsroom is to build and maintain good working relationships with my fellow editors and staff.
- Freedom Whiting
- Opinions editor
- Email:
- opinions@thevoyager.net
- We are all familiar with the old saying: opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one. And with the popularity of internet blogging, social networks and the 24-hour news cycle, there is no shortage of butthole opinions. More than ever now, those opinions are becoming more one-sided. But that’s ok. Opinions don’t have to be “fair and balanced”, unless you portray yourself as a news organization, but that is another story for another day. For now I would just like to introduce myself and explain some of my goals for the fall semester. Prior to becoming Opinions Editor, I was a regular contributing writer to the page to which I learned three things: 1) Some readers of The Voyager love their confederate flag and do not take too kindly to criticisms of said flag. 2) You are more likely to find negative comments for an opinion than positive comments. My goal is to bring some form of balance of opinion to the opinion page. And with the economy still lagging behind and the upcoming mid-term elections, there should be no shortage of opinions. Hopefully I will be able to find smart and informative opinions, and not just the ones where someone is talking out of their butt.
- Jack McMullen
- Sports Editor
- Email:
- sports@thevoyager.net
- I’m Jack McMullen, Sports Editor for the Voyager, and a senior at the University of West Florida majoring in print journalism. I grew up as a military brat, which allowed me to experience many different cultures when it came to sports. I had the opportunity to play and witness the various extremes of sports in different areas of the United States and United Kingdom. My dad recently retired from the military after serving 26 years for the United States Air Force. Tampa, Fla.is now the area that my family calls home. I have two older twin sisters who graduated from UWF back in 2006. At a very early age I found a love for sports. I am a fan of all sports, but my favorite time of the year is when football season starts and October baseball begins. Writing allows me to express my passion with people who share the same interest. My major gives me the opportunity to stay connected with the world of sports. My main focus this year while serving on the newspaper staff, is to produce a “newsworthy” sports section for all viewers.
- Kristen Dressel
- Web Editor and Multimedia Editor
- Email:
- voyager.webeditor@gmail.com
- I am a senior majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in internet technologies. I’m originally from Jacksonville, Fla. and graduated from Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology majoring in Communication Arts. I graduated with honors and with certificates of completion in commercial arts and TV production. I have participated in two internships for web design and for the news. My first internship was with Duval County School System designing a new web site for a local high school and I just completed my second internship with WJXT in Jacksonville, Fla. I worked in the news department where I wrote and edited stories, and interviewed and edited packages. This is my second year on the Voyager staff and competed in the Southeast Journalism Conference last year in the news anchor category, placing second. After graduation I want to work at a news station as a reporter. In my spare time I like reading, drawing and spending time at the beach.
- Jeff Hagedorn
- Advertising manager
- Email:
- jhagedorn@uwf.edu
- Bruce Swain
- Faculty Advisor
- Email:
- bswain@uwf.edu
http://www.thevoyager.net/nautilus-news