Since last December, I have been honored to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville branch of Odyssey as well as being a founding member of our team. During that time, we have had some amazing results on campus and off campus. Overall, we have published over 500 articles and reached well over 100,000 readers. Odyssey has not only been a voice for our students but a voice for our readers. Our readers share our content because they see the value in it.

One question that I get asked a lot by my fellow students, faculty and staff is this: "Why did you choose to start Odyssey on our campus?" Let me tell you exactly why.

SIUE has voices that need to be heard.

Since coming to SIUE, I have noticed that we are a school that not only cares about its students but we also care about our students' voices. With over 250 student organizations, I was shocked to find out that Odyssey had not yet been started at SIUE. Once I started the process of making Odyssey official here, an outpour of students reached out to me asking how they could become involved. Our students want their voices to be heard, and if Odyssey can do that for them, I believe that we should utilize Odyssey in that way — and we have.

We are in a very news-rich community.

SIUE is located 25 minutes from St. Louis, Missouri, one of the largest cities in America. With that being said, we don't cover news in your traditional journalistic style. We write about what we care about — not what the media tells us to care about. We have the ability to create conversations around newsworthy topics in our community. We reach out to our community through social media with our articles and allow the conversation we are starting to grow larger and larger. That's very easy to do when you live in the St. Louis area.

I could make a longer list, but those are the two main reasons that I brought Odyssey to SIUE. I don't and never did think that this was about me. This is about our students and making their voices heard. We are earning our degrees and learning tons of information through our college years, but we never really get to exercise those educated voices we are forming unless it is a researched paper for a course we are taking. Odyssey is giving our students an opportunity to express their educated opinions on a national platform.

If you wish to join our team here at SIUE, go to theodysseyonline.com/apply and request to join our team! We want all voices to be heard at SIUE.