This semester’s Cardinal & Cream staff writers were recently interviewed by their fellow writers. Below are bios of C&C’s staff writers for the Spring 2020 semester.
Addie Carter
Sitting in the enclosure of her room, journal open and pen in hand, senior public relations and Spanish double major Addie Carter would pray. In the still tranquility, her laments and praises would cry out to the Lord in the form of systematic sentences she had constructed with the stroke of her pen.
It was her and God, no one else.
“Writing has always been a free thing,” said Carter. “It is where I felt free. Free with the Lord. Free with myself.”
The freedom of writing down her prayers broadened her writing creativity as she meticulously began to write at the end of each day during her gap year between high school and college. She did not miss a day, and she did not miss a detail.
“Now I write because it is kinda like taking a walk by myself and just being alone like I can be myself on a piece of paper,” said Carter.
That intimate moment of communicating with herself and God has allowed Carter to grow and invest in the people placed in her life by knowing and telling their story. There is a freedom to understand those around her, and she wants to use that freedom to impact others through her articulate words.
“I would love to write short stories, but the thing is: what I really feel like my writing is for is speaking. Like I want to speak, I want to be a speaker. I want to preach.”
Kirbi Cochran
In 8th grade, Kirbi Cochran had invisalign. In 8th grade, Cochran visited her aunt in Lafayette, La., because of her invisalign appointment. She went to a Pack and Paddle store while there and met Paula Froelich, a travel writer. It was in 8th grade that Cochran decided she wanted to be a travel writer.
Cochran loves to travel and has been to many places. She also loves to write, which is why being a travel writer seemed to appeal to her. But as the years went on, she was not as excited when there were opportunities that came to write about her traveling. She decided that she wanted to keep both aspects in her life, just not together.
Now as a second semester freshman, Cochran sits among several older students writing for the school online newsletter. Her stories are continuously being published, and she even has been acknowledged in class a few times by the professor for her articles.
“It’s a little intimidating,” Cochran said. “There is just so much newness, and I’m still trying to figure out how to balance everything. It is a big learning experience.”
Cochran prefers to be alone when she writes. In fact, she insists she has to be alone in her bedroom, listening to music. She types out everything from her recorded interview and then begins highlighting and grouping ideas together, until each part fits into a cohesive story.
She gets really excited to see her work published. She always sends it to her family to read. She thought her writing was never going to be published at the big state school she thought she would attend. And now, her stories are published every week.
Madeline Fleming
Madeline Fleming has not always considered herself a writer. Before college, she enjoyed being creative and telling stories outwardly through theatre. She also enjoyed filling her mind with stories by reading books. She has always enjoyed storytelling, but transferring them to paper has been more of a challenge for her.
When Fleming declared public relations as her major, she knew that it would involve some forms of writing. She expected the technical classes that come with public relations. She did not realize, however, that she would take several classes which would push her to write more creatively.
Since having more opportunities to write through the Union communications department, Fleming has grown exponentially. She has learned that when she is knowledgeable and passionate about something, it becomes easier to put her thoughts to paper.
“I am into True Crime. I could write a novel on that kind of stuff,” said Fleming.
Fleming has realized that the key for her is to pinpoint her passions and to let that fuel her writing.
Grace McMurry
Seated in their living room at home, Grace McMurry and her mother used to work on all of her high school papers together. Her mom was always the better writer, and McMurry was always happy for the help.
She came to college undecided in her freshman year. After talking to Professor Ashley Blair, however, McMurry chose to pursue a degree in public relations and has loved all of her classes since. Cardinal and Cream has grown her abilities as a writer by challenging her to keep up with current events as well as stretching her writing abilities.
Interestingly, she does not believe she has a passion for writing. As a people pleaser, writing actually scares McMurry because she realizes she cannot please everyone. Even so, one of her life goals is to publish a book.
In her senior year, McMurry found a desire to inspire people at a young age. The book is a work in progress, and McMurry hopes to publish it while still in her twenties. The book is simply about being a Christian and the power of a testimony. McMurry believes that while someone may be uncertain or afraid to share their testimony, their story matters.
“Be brave enough to share your story with someone because it could change their life,” said McMurry.
Natalie Nagy
She told a story from elementary school. The assignment was to write a page about a part of the body. She chose her knees. She chose knees because she knew no one else would choose that. She wrote.
“This is amazing, wow!” said her teacher, putting stars all over it.
She told a story from college. She thought she had declared “undecided,” but she wasn’t getting any emails about the meetings and appointments. Turns out, somehow she had been placed in journalism.
“I would love to write about people, like share and tell their stories,” said Nat Nagy, sophomore journalism major.
What started out as a story about her knees in elementary school has turned into Nagy pursuing a dream to tell stories about people’s lives.
“I’m taking it one step at a time,” she said.
She explained to me why it’s exciting and why it’s scary, sharing other people’s stories, receiving criticism from her readers. But those who know Nagy know she’s passionate. She recognizes the Lord’s work in her journey to pursue journalism.
“I had no control over this. This is just where I was placed,” she said.
She said she’s good at analysis: “Just sitting and being intentional and picking out what all the good parts are.”
I think if she could find the good parts about her knees in elementary school, she’s certain to find the good parts in the people’s stories she gets to share.
Some people live their whole lives without knowing what they might do. But for Nagy, it was a little story about body parts and a mysterious journalism major declaration that confirmed writing is what she’s doing.
Delaney Sain
Not everyone is going to love every part of his or her job. Everyone has a hard thing and everyone’s hard thing is different. For Delaney Sain, junior public relations major, writing is her hard thing.
Other than the typical high school research paper, Sain started writing senior year of high school through a creative writing course.
Sain claims that her brain travels a million miles per hour, which can make writing hard. For Sain, it is difficult to put organized thoughts on paper.
“Sometimes I’ll just stare at a blank sheet,” said Sain. “I have no idea where to go because my brain is in so many different places.”
Sain wrote a piece on Jada Smith, Lady Bulldogs point guard, and she received great affirmation after it was published. This encouraged Sain to keep writing and to get better for the next time she writes.
Said says that her favorite part about writing is that “you can put your own breath and soul into it.”
This is Sain’s hard thing. Despite her hard thing, she continues to persevere, resulting in remarkable articles giving her the chance to tell other people’s stories.
Callie Teague
When I first met Callie Teague almost 3 years ago, we initially bonded very quickly over music. We sat in a booth in The Lex and spent almost a complete hour just talking about the bands we like, our favorite genres of music, all the concerts and festivals we’ve attended and anything and everything we could think to say about our music taste and adventures. As cliche as it sounds, that day I knew Teague and I were meant to be friends.
Fast forward to now, and our bond over music has grown deeper and we have developed even more bonds. Like our love for writing and recognizing that we are not as good at it as we used to think.
“I think that I’ve realized that I’m not as good of a writer as I thought I was,” Teague said. “As a kid everybody tells you ‘you’re such a great writer’ and I really thought I was.”
Teague went on to explain that her weakness in writing is being detail oriented and developing a scene using her words. However, her strengths are writing facts, specifically news.
Perhaps Teague should not view her writing as “good or bad,” but remember that every writer should not have the same strengths or else there would be no room for challenge and growth.
Landon Todd
Landon Todd, junior digital media communications major at Union University, has a genuine love for writing. Before college, he mostly wrote papers for his English classes, which was not the most fun thing to do. However, in college, he learned that he could write about things that he enjoyed because other people had the same interests that he did.
Todd sees Ted Kluck, assistant professor of communication arts at Union, as being influential in his love for writing.
“He’s the first person that made [writing] seem like a legit thing to do,” Todd said.
Writing can be so much more than putting words on a page. When someone has a passion for writing, they will pour their heart and soul into their work, and they will find most writing to be enjoyable. Todd has this passion.
“It’s really cool to take experiences and people that I know and thoughts that I have and be able to put them on paper,” Todd said. “Even if it’s not shared with anybody else, it’s really cool for me to get to just kind of visualize what’s going on in my head.”
Anna Warren
“Usually whenever I sit down and write something, I really feel like there’s something inside me that needs to get out,” said Anna Warren.
For Warren, writing with a passion began around the age of 16, when she needed an outlet for her emotions. Songwriting became the main avenue she would use.
“Whenever I’m feeling a certain emotion that I can’t find a song to help me relate to that, usually I’ll sit down at my piano or sit down by myself and just write what I’m needing to hear and say,” said Warren.
This past January term, Warren took Immersion Journalism, a creative nonfiction writing class. The class had very few boundaries for writing, leaving Warren with room for endless creativity.
“Whatever I wanted to make of my story, I could make it,” said Warren.
Warren wrote about her relationship with her late grandmother, making sure to include the good and the bad of her life. Without the push that this class was, Warren would not have just sat down and written like this, but it was able to leave her with a piece of her beloved grandmother.
“I don’t want to forget all the bad things, because they made her into who she was,” said Warren.
Grace White
I sit across from Grace White in the second floor hallway of Jennings. She’s a freshman journalism major and a part of the Union softball team. She’s from New Johnsonville, which is “about an hour, fifteen minutes east of here, right on the river.” She’s played softball since she was five years old, starting with “Dixie Ball” and moving all the way up to collegiate softball. She’s been doing this her entire life and enjoys all of it.
Perhaps even more so does White enjoy writing. She’s written personal sonnets, fictional short stories and features for the school paper (her favorite things to write). When asked what motivates her to write, White instantly fired back with “my mom.” White’s mom was a journalist who wrote for the Co-Op, but in 2011 she passed away from breast cancer. White cites journals her mom wrote her when she was young as an inspiration for her own writing.
“Just looking back at what she did has been really influential,” she said.
White, one day, wants to write a novel about her life story, complete with softball and her mom.
“I think it’s a story that I want other people to hear, because I know God’s hand was in it all,” she explained. “He brought me where I’m at.”
White is passionate about sharing with others her story, in hopes of presenting God’s love, and that’s nothing short of inspiring to hear.
