The Tan & Cardinal touches everyone who goes through its staff, but like any organization it stays with some more than others. For Kelley Youman, spending time on the newspaper was the start of a lifelong love for journalism, and provided the foundation for her current career.
Youman started off as a staff writer her first year with the newspaper, and eventually worked her way up to editor-in-chief her senior year. While working for the Tan & Cardinal, Youman got a chance to work on some memorable stories.
Her first quarter on the paper, Youman was called in by her adviser, Dr. Hillary Warren, to cover a breaking story—a story about the paper itself. The Tan & Cardinal had printed what many deemed a racially insensitive cartoon, and a protest was held on campus. Youman went to cover it, a nervous, new reporter asking questions alongside camera crews from Columbus channels four and 10, but covering that story taught her a lesson that has stuck with her.
“You always want to have different parties look at your paper, and think long and hard before you publish things,” said Youman. “Otherwise you might not just tell the story, you might become the story.”
Being a member of the Tan & Cardinal exposed Youman to many new experiences and opportunities. From convincing Bon Appetit, Otterbein’s dining service, to donate food for the paper’s weekly production nights, to winning awards and going to journalism conferences in Las Vegas and West Virginia.
The newspaper helped her find her journalistic voice as well as dive into the professional world.
“I could not tell you where I would be if it weren’t for that newspaper,” said Youman. “I got my first job two hours after I took my last final my senior year.”
Youman now works in radio, managing websites for Saga Communications. The company owns about 100 radio stations, including Columbus stations Sunny 95 and Mix 107.9. Youman curates the news content for all of the stations’ websites. She credits her success to dumb luck, trial and error and some of the best professors she could ask for at Otterbein, including Hillary Warren, Kerry Strayer and Jean Kelly. But more than anything, she believes her time with the Tan & Cardinal helped prepare her for her current career.
“The T&C allowed me to practice all facets of media,” said Youman. “I learned to write everything: headlines, cutlines, stories. I learned how to edit, layout newspapers and magazine. The T&C was where I got to put everything I learned in class and read in books into actual practice.”
Youman’s first two jobs out of school were for publications very similar to the Tan & Cardinal, and she loved getting to dive right into the career she had been preparing for while at Otterbein.
“I just kept thinking I can’t believe this is real life,” said Youman. “It was basically the same thing I had been doing for the T&C, only now I was getting paid for it.”
Despite the late nights and fast pace, Youman loves what she does, and has gotten to be involved in a lot of cool projects and events as a working member of the media.
“Whatever you think you’re going into in the future, you need to get involved in something,” said Youman. “For me, that something was very clearly the T&C.”
Put in the work, time, laughs and dedication, and the T&C will give you so much more than you could ever expect.
“The T&C taught me to never be afraid to ask a question,” said Youman. “It’s where I first started calling myself a journalist. It’s where I first started believing I was a journalist… To that end, it is where I still believe to this day I became a journalist.”
