Senior Mary Carney has been on The Cardinal Times since her sophomore year and was the Mass Communication editor her junior year. After spontaneously forecasting for Mass Communications during her freshman year, she quickly realized her love for journalism and editing.
“I think that one thing I really liked about [journalism] was that it brought me out of my comfort zone,” said Carney.
Carney loves writing about hard-hitting pieces, such as her article on Mayor Ted Wheeler’s controversial camping ban, which won her a Best of Student Newspapers Online (SNO) award in 2022.
While Carney enjoyed writing articles like this, she admits that writing difficult, high-profile pieces is only one part of journalism.
“There are so many stories that are so small that you could write about, and they’re important. … It might seem kind of daunting to think that you have to do it one way, but I believe there are many different ways to do [journalism].”
One of Carney’s favorite contributions to The Cardinal Times was her satire advice column, “The Cardinal Consultants.” Carney and her co-writer, senior Anna Klein, started this column as a choice project in Mass Communications.
For each issue, the Cardinal Consultants solve real-life problems submitted by Lincoln students.
“Anna and I weren’t even really close that year, which is crazy,” said Carney. “We sat next to each other because she was the only person I knew in the class. I don’t even remember really how it came up. We had this idea of doing an advice column, and then we thought, well, maybe it should be funny.”
One of Mary’s close friends, Sofia Lilah Petteni, is a senior at Jesuit High School. She appreciates her friendship with Mary and the hardworking effort she brings to everything in life.
“She carries herself with this awareness of every situation and is very in tune with that,” said Petteni. “She is very sweet and also very hardworking. Once you get to know her she is very bubbly and witty.”
