All Posts Tagged With: "Maclean’s OnCampus"
A better bio
If you’re reading this you obviously weren’t put off by my initial preamble. Or (more likely) you know me personally. Either way, I’ll move on to a more appropriate introduction. My name is Robyn Urback and I’m going into my fourth year of journalism at Ryerson University, majoring in magazine reporting. As of yet, I’ve [...]
If you’re reading this you obviously weren’t put off by my initial preamble. Or (more likely) you know me personally. Either way, I’ll move on to a more appropriate introduction.
My name is Robyn Urback and I’m going into my fourth year of journalism at Ryerson University, majoring in magazine reporting. As of yet, I’ve just dipped my toes in the industry, but I’ve since grasped there are some key elements I’ll need to survive; namely, a thick skin, some talent, a lot of luck, and a rich spouse. Let’s just say I always keep a pen and my number in my back pocket.
My future goals include finding employment and making it to 25 without facing a libel suit. (Fingers crossed.)
Now, about the blog. Essentially, my blog will consist of commentary on social, economic and political affairs.
… Are you gagging? I would be. So allow me to elaborate:
I don’t plan or strive to change the world. I don’t pick daisies. I don’t write song lyrics. I recognize the inherent self-indulgent nature of blogging so I’ll call myself a narcissist before you get the chance to. I’m cliché in that I’m twenty-something, semi-informed and still feel entitled to my opinion. Though I like to think I’m authentic and original in that I don’t pretend to be anything else.
If you’re easily offended, I’m probably not the blogger to follow. If you don’t get what I mean when I say “bandwagon leftism” (the drug of choice, in my opinion, of many Canadian university students today …well, that and ‘E’) you probably won’t like what I have to say. Beyond that, I look forward to an interesting debate.
You can check out some of my past posts on my personal blog at http://robonlinecourse.blogspot.com/.
As well, feel free to send comments to robynoncampus@gmail.com.
So you think you can blog?
The editor (not exactly as illustrated) will be the judge of that.
Our site is looking to expand its roster of regular bloggers. You could be a high school student, university student, college student, graduate student or faculty member. This is your chance to share your experiences, ideas, passions and pet peeves with a national and international audience. We’re looking for traditional bloggers — i.e. people who communicate through the written word — and also video bloggers, photo bloggers and cartoonists. Or bloggers who combine some or all of the above. It’s the end of the first decade of the third millennia. All sorts of previously crazy things are possible.
So, you ask, how do I apply? Send us:
1. Your name, email address and other basic contact deets.
2. A short bio or c.v.: Where are/were you at school? What are/were you studying? Or if you’re a high school student, where/what do you hope to study? And so on.
3. Samples of your writing: This is the most important part. These samples don’t necessarily have to be published work. Articles, blog posts, tweets, emails, txts, notes passed in class or mad ravings from your diary: whatever. Just show us that you can think and write, and do both simultaneously while walking and chewing gum. Pedigree isn’t important. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; the proof of the writing is in the reading.
3(b) Samples of your videography/photography/cartoons/etc: If you’re a post-literary type, and you’d like to do a primarily multimedia blog, send us a few media samples. Again, we don’t care if your work has been published/broadcast in the corporate or campus MSM. All that matters is the quality of the work, which will speak for itself. The proof of the video is in the viewing.
4. A plan. Not a plan for the rest of your life. A plan for the blog. What do you want to do with the blog? What sorts of topics do you want to cover? Some people are hard core reporters; some are deeply personal chroniclers. Both approaches, and all choices in between, are open. Just let us know what you have in mind.
When you’re ready, drop me a line at oncampusblogger@gmail.com.
Reboot!
Is it 2009 already? A look back at what we at Maclean’s OnCampus were up to in 2008
Time to restart this blog. Finally. You get busy with one project, and then another…. and before you know it, your blog’s last time stamp is from last summer.
So what have we been up to here at the Maclean’s higher education workshop? Over the past year, we:
* Launched a new website (that would be this one).
* Held our first annual student recruitment fair, the Maclean’s OnCampus Virtual Fair. (It’s still available on demand until the end of this month), and thousands registered to take part.
* Published our largest-ever edition of the Maclean’s University Rankings issue. (The issue is still on newsstands until the end of the month; online, you can get some of the rankings data here.)
* Put out our third annual University Student issue, containing student survey results from most of Canada’s universities. (Check out those results here). In 2008, we also finally started to expand our coverage of that other half of the Canadian higher education landscape—colleges—giving them a growing section on the website, featuring student survey results from more than 150,000 college students and grads in Ontario and B.C.
* Introduced new sections to the website, such as Student Finance.
* Looking for money for school? We launched a growing database of university and college awards, bursaries and scholarships. The Scholarship Finder search engine contains several thousand awards—and we’re just days away from pushing the button on a dramatic expansion of the database.
* Published our second annual professional schools issue, including our exclusive ranking of Canada’s law schools.
* And published our 13th annual edition of the Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities. (which you can buy on newsstand, or online here.). Since it’s inception, the Guide has sold over 350,000 copies.
Other editorial highlights include:
* Joey Coleman’s fine coverage of the York strike.
* The disclosure of university presidents’ contracts, including some juicy benefits for departing chief execs. (Notably the outgoing president of McMaster and his mysterious 14-year, $99,999 per year golden handshake—$1 less than the amount that must be disclosed under Ontario public sector compensation rules. Big tip of the hat to the Hamilton Spectator for spending months pursuing McMaster and this story through access to information law.)
* The Shinerama debacle at Carleton.
What’s coming for 2009? That’s my next post…..
