The Eagle’s Class of 2021 reflects on their time on staff
Published in The Eagle

Note: This article was written by multiple Eagle staffers. Just the portion written by me appears here. Click the link above to read the whole article in The Eagle.
Cecilia Markley, Style Editor, Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Minors in Political Science and Spanish
My time on The Eagle was unique in many ways. I only joined one year ago, so my entire time spent with The Eagle was online. I never met many of my fellow staffers in person, and I never even stepped foot in our office. I wasn’t even in D.C. during the summer and fall of 2020. In the beginning, I felt like an imposter, and I felt guilty speaking up and sharing my opinion. But as time went on, I realized how wonderful The Eagle family is. Fellow staffers encouraged me and cheered me on throughout my time here, making me feel each passing day more and more like a part of the Eagle family. Kelly McDonnell, as managing editor of Life in summer and fall of 2020, was supportive of my initiative to cover underrepresented clubs on campus and was always willing to answer my many questions and listen to me when I was self-conscious about an article. Sophie Austin, our amazing editor-in-chief for the 2020-2021 school year, talked to me during news shifts in the fall about class, The Eagle and just life in general. And then, I was shocked and unbelievably honored when Clare Mulroy, the managing editor of Life in spring of 2021 and our brilliant new editor-in-chief, offered me the position of Style editor.
As Style editor this semester, I often felt out of place. At pitch meetings, I always compared myself to arts and entertainment editor Stephanie Mirah and music editor Thomas Recchio, both of whom never failed to come with a myriad of well-researched pitches. Food and fitness editor Emily Walsh always had creative pitches. Silver screen editor Grace George almost every week had found a new screener for the staffers. I felt like I couldn’t live up to them and was always flailing when presenting my pitches. Several times throughout the semester, however, I reached out to Clare and Steph, and they reassured me that I was doing a good job. I also want to shoutout Grace, who wrote such an amazing Style article for the spring print edition. And a big thank you to Clare for answering my constant texts. I’m so excited to follow her work as editor-in-chief. I want to thank Kelly and Clare, the Life section editors and more broadly the entire Life section, for being some of the kindest, most talented and most genuine people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Thank you to everyone who worked at The Eagle this past year. You all helped me in so many ways. Thank you to everyone who has ever worked at The Eagle for making it what it is today and for everyone who will continue to build it to be even better. Looking back at this past year, I am proud of my work for The Eagle. I started the AU Club Feature series, which I hope to watch grow even more after I leave. I met some of the most incredible people who I never would have known were it not for joining this institution. I grew as a writer more in this past year than in all my years before. I am so happy that I got to contribute to such a remarkable organization. My only regret is that I didn’t join The Eagle sooner.
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