The first Letter from the Editor of The UCC Current.
As a Christian, I have found myself in many positions where I feel rather inadequate for the roles I fill. During High School, I managed to sustain a position of Class representatives and executives for various clubs while simultaneously going home and wondering if my feet were simply too small for the large shoes I was expected to fill.
I often wondered how I ended up in those positions. As someone who believes a lot in Jesus Christ, I find it humorous how many times Iʼve ended up in a particular room and just stared at the sky with a resounding, “What?!ˮ What were you thinking? Why am I here?ˮ
It is with that sentiment that I take on the role of the Founding Editor-in-Chief of The UCC Current.
I was seventeen when I met Sachiel Thompson, a media and communications student who was determined to revive the then Media Club in 2024. Our union was short-lived when she decidedly went to the University of the West Indies to continue her studies, but the fire she left behind had inspired me.
As she left, Reyna Taylor and I took the reins and did our best with our significantly minimal knowledge to run the Media Club. We were failing. Spectacularly. I, however, had found myself nose deep in books on Journalism and writing. I found myself watching and reading news, not because I was interested in the headline, but because I wanted to find why the headline gravitated to me as much as it did.
I became successfully and unapologetically a journalism nerd.
The Media Club became the Media Society, which became The UCC Review, which eventually became The UCC Current.
This publication stands now as a reflection of the effort placed into its foundations, and I hope it will one day exist as a reflection of the thoughts, stories, and lives that exist at The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean.
My interest in journalism eventually made me great at eavesdropping. I noticed we have so much to say, so much to challenge and so much to champion. How interesting would it be to have a platform to express that thought and have it heard by others? How interesting would it be to engage in intellectually stimulating conversations that shape our immediate living?
That is why I ultimately believe The UCC Current should exist.
Justin Doud, the former Managing Editor of the Daily Texan, described journalism as being “not essential. ˮ That sentiment is frighteningly true. He continues,
“On a list of needs, ready access to information likely wouldnʼt make it in many folksʼ top 100. ˮ
On July 30, as I sat at my Marketing Summer Internship, I hastily clicked on a podcast from The Atlantic titled, “Is the Age of Reading Over? ˮ The conclusion was, in fact, partially. Now you can imagine how it might be a little difficult for me to find inspiration for a publication when its primary format isnʼt something the general population is even interested in consuming. As a Marketing student, this is something of a nightmare). It is perhaps, however, a reason to try.
So, here I am, sitting behind a computer with little feet, attempting to carry something much larger than myself to a place where this publication is only as great as its weakest article; to a place where I hope it is remembered much larger than I am a decade to come. Welcome to The UCC Current; an archive of the lives, thoughts and stories that shape the UCC community. Your voice matters and this is where we intend to prove it.
