Incoming Editor-in-Chief Dana C. Jones (left) and outgoing Editor-in-Chief Emily Burleson (right).

With less than a week left as editor, I’m a little emotional. My senior year, which starts in the fall, will be my first not coming into the Center for Student Media for hours and hours every week. I won’t miss the deadlines, but the memories made and the lessons learned here are priceless. Writing and editing stories at The Cougar has transformed how I think about journalism and its role in maintaining an informed citizenry.

I’m most proud of the first two weeks of the fall semester. Like the rest of Houston, our year got off to wild start by covering Hurricane Harvey from our laptops. Reporting from Laredo to Austin to Dallas, our fantastic editors covered evacuations, our athletics program, the rampant volunteering opportunities, and their own escapes from the storm’s wrath. And after publishing dozens of stories while UH was closed, we pulled together an entire Wednesday print with more stories about the storm in just 8 hours. Why? Because UH deserved it.

It’s been an absolute privilege to bring UH the news and watch the talented journalists in this newsroom grow. Your new editor-in-chief, Dana, will take our work from this year and run with it. I’m confident that I’m leaving The Cougar in good hands.

If you’re reading this, remember to check newsstands every Wednesday and your Twitter feed every day for fresh stories about your university, and use The Cougar to make your university better.

-Emily Burleson, outgoing editor-in-chief

When I first joined The Cougar a year and a half ago, I vowed that I would never write for news. I was an opinion man through and through. Six months ago, not only did I join the news desk, I became the first Features Editor that The Cougar has ever had.

Now, I’m on my way to being Editor-in-Chief, which is something else I — a black boy from Compton, California transferring from an HBCU — never saw coming.

I have to thank the people that I spent countless hours around. To all of my fellow editors, my advisor and mentor Glissette Santana and the outgoing Editor-in-Chief Emily Burleson. Each of you has shown me good journalism and instilled in me the confidence to pursue my path in this field even fiercer than I had before.

I look forward to growing as a journalist and editor, but more importantly, I am excited to show someone — whether it be an editor or staff writer — what I was I was shown when I was in their places only a short time to ago.

To the students, faculty and staff who read us, and those who read us in the future: Be ready for changes that will both grow us as journalists not only for our stories but to better serve the UH community as your No. 1 source for news.

The board and I are still ironing out our plan for the year ahead. Some of the things you can expect is more coverage of student life, a greater presence of social media, a new look of our print product, and integration of multimedia with the collaboration of CoogTV and Coog Radio.

I hope everyone is ready for this journey we’re about to take together.

-Dana C. Jones, incoming editor-in-chief

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“Turning a new page of The Cougar with our new Editor-In-Chief” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar