Current news and Crews: Life as an AFM student at Imprint

Hey Warriors! How’s it going? My name is Saihaj, and I’m a first-year student in the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program. Fun fact: I am also a Reporter with the school newspaper, Imprint! My Imprint journey began in early September when I was looking online for potential clubs and extracurriculars to join once my first year of university officially started. Working with a school newspaper had been in the back of my mind for a while, so I decided to type “Waterloo school newspaper,” into the Google search bar and there it showed up “Imprint.”

I was so excited to see that UW had an active school newspaper, so I started exploring the page and saw the option to volunteer. I filled out the form, sent an email and then before you know it; I was a Reporter! I did not have any past experience in reporting, so this was a new endeavour, but lucky for me, Imprint does not require past experience, and the members of the Imprint team are so helpful when it comes to questions. Often times, our passion for something may seem unachievable as we find ourselves too tangled in the must do’s but it could just be an initiative away!

Now, everyone knows that balancing schoolwork, extracurriculars, hobbies and interests, and personal life can be difficult, and man, oh man, have I struggled with time management in the past and, to be honest, I still do. The time management tool that has been working the best for me is having a list of weekly goals and then further splitting the goals into daily tasks to meet my goals. I plan my reporting with my school work; these two are not separate when planning, organizing and prioritizing. Creating balance is not too difficult when you are doing things that you like to do. In a week that I am writing an article, I will usually begin to reach out to sources by Tuesday or Wednesday and familiarize myself with the article’s subject and start writing ASAP. Sometimes interviewees are only available later in the week, so the article gets pushed back a bit, but always sent in time for weekly publications on Wednesdays!

Being a Writer and Reporter requires me to reach out to many different people; some send their statements through emails, while with others, I have the opportunity to meet over video calls. Through Imprint, I’ve had phone and video calls with Professors, Directors, Associate- Deans and faculty and had email exchanges with Deans and different groups on campus.

Meeting and speaking with new people can be very nerve-wracking, but the experience has helped me immensely with building self-confidence. I am loving it!

So far, I’ve written four articles, and I’m hoping to do many more!

Read Saihaj’s article on page 8 of the October 21, 2020 Imprint Issue.