Early in my college career, I needed my voice to be heard in The Sunflower.

Now, I feel it’s time they need mine.

I’ve had mixed feelings about Wichita State recommending their student newspaper getting their budget cut in half for the 2019 fiscal year. My head is telling me that it’s payback for their coverage against the university’s actions, but my heart tells me that what the administration is doing is simply not right.

Having worked for The Sunflower from 2015-2017, I can’t say that being a journalist for them was the highlight of my time at WSU. However, I can say that The Sunflower opened up opportunities for me to have a new variety of journalistic experiences.

Not only did I have the opportunity to cover a variety of news and sports surrounding WSU, I’ve had the experiences of covering a former Olympian turning pro, NBA basketball, NCAA Tournaments and taken my coverage all across the country. I had the opportunity to be the Sports Editor of the paper at just 19 years-old, something I thought wouldn’t happen until my senior year.

Of course, there were struggles at the paper, there were arguments, there were days where I wasn’t happy with what The Sunflower published the following morning. When I realized The Sunflower was not making me happy anymore, I left.

Just because I am not apart of the staff currently, it does not mean I want the future of the paper and its staff to suffer.

The cold, hard truth is that The Sunflower is the best organization that gives students real journalism experience on Wichita State’s campus. Not discrediting any other organizations on the campus, but The Sunflower will give anybody a chance to write, take photos, shoot video, design and be creative in their own way.

They gave me a chance as a freshman and I eventually worked my way up to an editor role. Even though I decided to end my time at the student paper, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have any other media jobs if it was not for them.

Every job interview that I have done, I have mentioned my roles with The Sunflower and still use those clips today. Before this academic year started, I was selected to represent Wichita State as their first Campus Connect correspondent, hired as a beat writer for Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network and continue freelance work for the Wichita Eagle.

In addition to all of those incredible opportunities, I managed to get a summer internship covering a summer baseball team in Bethesda, Maryland.

How did I get a job halfway across the country? All because of my work with The Sunflower.

There’s no question WSU’s administration is fed up with the extensive coverage on controversial topics, but cutting The Sunflower’s budget in half is simply not the solution. To editor-in-chief Chance Swaim, who I still have a tremendous amount of respect for as a journalist and friend, that action would be detrimental.

Administration is talking about being innovative on the WSU campus. So how would setting communication students up for failure fit this idea?

I love going to the Elliott School, but the reality is that WSU’s communication school does offer much for a journalism student to get experience outside of the classroom that is on campus. The Sunflower is one, if not the only, outlet for students to get quality experience.

Students need a place where they can get work examples, mess up and not be fired because of it. The Sunflower has given me and other workers numerous chances after making mistakes that could have otherwise cost an individual their job.

Yes, the American will hire another correspondent after me for the 2018-19 school year, but only one student gets that opportunity. WSU TV, KMUW, KWCH, KAKE, KSN, Wichita Eagle, they all may hire some students for some part time or freelance work. That’s never a guarantee, especially for those students who only have work from the classroom to show.

For some students, that gets their foot in the door. For others, like myself, class work is simply not enough. Working for The Sunflower made the difference for me in my early career and I would not have gotten hired at any of my current jobs had I not worked for them first.

Numerous alumni have gone onto great success in the journalism world and I’m pretty sure they would all say the same thing as what I’m saying now. I love Wichita State and don’t regret pursuing my degree as a Shocker.

If administration were to cut their student newspaper’s budget in half, pretty much ending the paper, then they are taking away an opportunity for talented communication students to showcase their talents, create clips for resumes and making life much more difficult trying to find a job in the field they love.