One of the oldest student organizations on campus had only one member when the fall semester started – Society of Professional Journalists.
Journalism senior and SPJ President Ariell Antonio is that one member. Antonio joined SPJ last spring, and thanks to her recruitment efforts at the beginning of the semester, SPJ currently has an executive staff and more than 30 applications, with more applications coming in daily.
The Society of Professional Journalists is an organization for students interested in careers in journalism. The group holds meetings in the conference room on the second floor of Hodges Hall every two weeks and feature speakers and other topics for students interested in journalism.
Antonio began the semester by going to mass communication classes, speaking about SPJ and asking other journalism students to join.
With help from the organization’s sponsor, mass communication professor Jay Perkins, the two managed to recruit enough members to get the fledging organization on its feet.
“We went to a couple of classes and handed out applications, and professor Perkins plugged us in his classes,” Antonio said. “We’re not finished; we still have to get out and get some more members. It’s an ongoing process.”
Perkins said he has been involved with SPJ for 21 years.
“The membership is stronger this year than it’s been in a while,” Perkins said. “We only had about seven or eight members last year.”
Perkins attributed SPJ’s hardship to the plethora of student organizations that focus on mass communication students.
“The more groups you have for people to join, the less membership you will have,” Perkins said.
Antonio said she is hoping for a total membership of 30 students by the end of the semester.
“The great thing about SPJ is it’s not restricted to students only in the journalism concentration,” Antonio said. “The privilege of SPJ is to branch students into the professional world so we can make contacts in the profession.”
Many of SPJ’s members said they joined this semester because of the opportunity to lay the groundwork for the organization.
Matt Rion, a journalism sophomore and SPJ’s treasurer, said he was recruited this semester and hopes SPJ will help him establish contacts in the journalism field.
Rion said the organization is planning a trip to the SPJ regional conference in Tennessee and a visit to Washington, D.C.
Antonio said the trip to Washington, D.C., is one of her top priorities for the semester.
“We want to visit the Washington Post and the White House,” Antonio said. “We’re going to contact some LSU alums to see what they are doing out there in the journalism field.”
Cicely Richard, a journalism junior, said she joined SPJ because she can continue to be a member after graduation.
“It’s a professional organization,” Richard said. “But we’re still kind of new, we have so many possibilities.”
Nicole Naquin, a journalism freshman, said she enjoyed SPJ’s small atmosphere.
“Everybody is really motivated to get this thing going,” Naquin said. “It kind of rubs off on all of us.”
Anyone interested in joining SPJ can check out the national organization’s Web site at www.spj.org or e-mail [email protected].