Morgan Schneider faced a problem her senior year: she wasn’t going to graduate.
“I took a semester off my junior year – the second semester – and I came back into my senior year, and realized that I couldn’t graduate on time in American studies and write a thesis,” Schneider said.
In order to graduate on time, she switched to an English major, reading “40-something” books each semester in order to catch up.
The work paid off, as Schneider graduated with an English degree on time in 2009.
Now Schneider, 25, works as a news editor at Express, a free daily newspaper in Washington, D.C. She works on page layout, runs the world section, and usually edits the cover story. Schneider said she enjoys her job, both because of her love of D.C. and the distinctive style of Express.
“We do a lot of very dynamic journalism,” she said. “Our deadlines are pretty early, so we have to figure out how to present the news in a way that will give something different to our readers.”
For example, Express usually goes to print before the State of the Union address.
“You can’t just be like ‘Sorry readers, we missed it!’” Schneider said. “You have to figure out ‘Well, how can we give them something more?’ and still be relevant to the conversation the day after it happens. And that is so fun.”
Schneider’s journalism career traces back to Hillsdale College, where she joined the Dow Journalism Program her sophomore year. She finds The Collegian’s new printing deadline of 2 a.m. on Wednesday nights “just remarkable.”
“It makes me feel really old,” Schneider said. “Back in my day we were there until 5:30.”
Schneider was also a member of the Chi Omega sorority.
“Being able to join a sorority and walk into a house of girls where I felt like I had a family really helped me love Hillsdale all the more.”
So did Professor of English John Somerville, one of her favorite professors, who helped her improve her writing.
Both Somerville and Schneider mentioned fond memories of reading “Blood Meridian,” Cormac McCarthy’s novel about killers in old Mexico.
One day after class, Schneider and her friend and classmate Assistant Director of the Dow Journalism Program Maria (Schmitt) Servold visited Somerville in his office and gave him homemade Cormac McCarthy greeting cards. They featured quotes from “Blood Meridian” on the front and messages relating the quotes to holidays – and failed midterms – on the inside.
For example, one read, “All about her the dead lay with their peeled skulls like polyps bluely wet or luminescent melons cooling on some mesa of the moon.” Inside, the message read: “Let’s give thanks we don’t live in McCarthy’s Mexico. Happy Thanksgiving.”
The project was hatched on a whim.
“We just got this idea and went for it and gave the cards to him that night,” Servold said. “That was one of our finer moments, I think.”
Schneider managed to pack three copy editing internships into her semester off her junior year, two at the Arizona Republic and one at the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., near Chicago. After she graduated she interned at the Washington Post and the Dallas Morning News.
“I got really good at packing up my life, every 4-6 months, throwing it in my car and driving a thousand miles, and then starting over,” Schneider said. “It’s a good skill to have.”
After her internships, she took a job with the New York Times wires service, where she was able to focus on her favorite journalistic pursuit: editing. She realized that she missed the visual and social aspect of working on a full newspaper, though, so when she heard of the opening at Express, she “jumped at the opportunity.”
Schneider now lives in Arlington, Va. She drinks “the strongest coffee [she] can brew and hate[s] Oxford commas.”