Dear Elon

It is just over two weeks since I graduated from Magna Cum Laude Elon University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in journalism and business administration. In the time since I graduated, I celebrated with friends, family and mentors, I moved out of my first adult apartment to spend some time at home, and I am on the job hunt. All the while I find myself reflecting on my college experience and trying to say thank you to everyone who made Elon my home, the place I truly feel I bELONg.

Dear Elon,

It was among the brick buildings and pathways, inside the newsroom and Oak House, and during retreats, breaking news, and endless late nights that I began to call Elon University home, and I could not be more grateful for such a wonderful place to have grown up.

I discovered Elon during my junior year of high school, purely by accident. I was at a high school journalism conference and saw the table and three people who, incidentally, would make Elon feel like home going forward. I toured campus, sat in on classes and even helped with midterm election coverage, and it really only took my first visit; I knew I found the university for me.

Fast forward to freshman year, I found friends and my footing in the Elon University Communications Fellows program and Elon News Network, I started taking on leadership opportunities and getting involved with campus ministry, and then… a pandemic hit. The world changed overnight and while I dealt with the changes personally, I also was busy writing about the impacts on the university and world as a whole. Being a student journalist during the pandemic took writing to process outside events to a whole new level.

When we came back to campus, I like many other college students had my doubts. I was not sure I would be able to learn in hybrid environments, I worried about the impact the pandemic had on my friendships and I feared we would all be sent home again. While it was challenging, we all made it, and at the end of my sophomore year I stepped into a position I dreamed of taking on: I became Executive Director of Elon News Network.

Throughout my tenure as Executive Director, I faced many challenges, from learning how to lead during a pandemic to running a news website that not only the university read, but the surrounding country relied on. The experience is not one I would trade for the world. I led alongside the most talented, hardworking individuals whom I am lucky not only call peers and colleagues, but friends.

I decided to take on Executive Director for a second year in a row, with a new job description along with it, and once the school year ended I was off to take part in the Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship in Phoenix, Arizona. My summer with News21 is still one of the best journalistic experiences of my career. There I was able to travel, report in the field and tell a national story of transparency within policing.

Coming back to Elon, I entered my senior year with equal parts excitement and nervousness. I took on a larger role within Elon Catholic Campus Ministry, becoming a student leader for one of the larger retreats and joining the choir. I continued my work as Executive Director and worked on sharpening my feature storytelling skills as well as my data journalism skills, in and outside of the classroom. By the time spring rolled around, I was working on my last Elon learning requirement by volunteering at Allied Churches of Alamance County, applying to jobs and trying to savor the last few weeks in my favorite place.

Throughout the past four years, I met amazing friends who turned into family. I made fantastic mentoring relationships. I researched, wrote, took photos and video, edited, designed, created, and coded. I challenged myself through minoring in business and taking many classes in creative writing, both fields outside of my typical journalism classes. Through it all, Elon University has been a place where I am able to try new things, make mistakes and always get right back up to try again.

So, Elon. This is not a goodbye letter. I will come back to visit and walk through the brick buildings and the newsroom, get coffee at Oak House and attend mass at Numen Lumen, and see my friends turned family and professors turned mentors. This is a thank you.

Thank you for endless late nights in the newsroom with my closest friends.

Thank you for retreats filled with hope and promise with people I now call family.

Thank you for all of the challenges, the heartbreaks, the blood sweat and tears.

Thank you for the moments of triumph, joy and laughter.

Thank you.

And long live Elon.

Yours,

Elon University Alumna, Kyra O’Connor ’23