Amelia Thorpe: TA

Senior Amelia Thorpe is a Cardinal Times veteran. She spent three years involved in many facets of the paper. During her freshman year she was in Intro to Mass Communications, sophomore year she was a reporter for the paper and now she is back during senior year as a Teacher Aide (TA). Thorpe says the Cardinal Times has been an exciting and beneficial experience for her during high school.

She originally joined mass communications because she liked writing. 

“I thought it was one of the more interesting classes. I liked the idea that I would have the freedom to write whatever I wanted and interview people, which I find really fun,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe’s favorite part of being a student reporter is interviewing different people to understand new perspectives.

“I just really like listening to people talk about what they have going on in their lives,” she said. “Once people begin to loosen up you can find out so many interesting things about them like […]things that are going on in their lives which I really enjoy.”

Thorpe’s favorite memory from being staff on the Cardinal Times was participating in Media Days organized by the Oregon Journalism Education Association and the University of Oregon.

“It was a really fun experience. As a class, we went to these instructional workshops and we got different lessons on different aspects of communications, being on a newspaper and reporting,” Thorpe said. “On top of that, it was just really fun to hang out with the people from the class and enjoy the community.”

Thorpe plans to take a gap year after high school. She wants to travel and work around the world.

“I’m going to be doing a bunch of different kinds of opportunities and jobs, just so I can get that experience and also to have fun and reset before I have to go back to school,” Thorpe said. “I also want to kind of find a passion for something specific so I can figure out what I want to do with my life.”

Thorpe hopes she can apply skills that she learned while on the paper to real life. 

“The practice that we get in this class for a real-life working environment will be very helpful. You’re working with other people to produce a product on a schedule,” Thorpe said. “It’s also helpful to practice communication and working through problems. Instead of going into working in groups now without any experience, I have that experience with me.”