But for The Lantern … I probably wouldn’t have graduated from Ohio State.
As a small-town Ohio girl in the ’60s I did what I was taught in school. I took lots of notes, raised my hand, used correct grammar and got good grades. I took typing because I was told every girl should.
The chances of going to college were slim and the odds were against leaving that hometown. But I loved to write, and I wrote a story about my locker as if it were alive. It was titled “Ode de Locker,” and I didn’t even know French. My high school English teacher loved it. She asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her a teacher or a nurse since that’s what girls did. She told me I could write, nursing was hard and teachers couldn’t get jobs. How about journalism? I didn’t know what that was.
I signed up for her journalism course and the school newspaper. The summer of my junior year I attended a journalism camp at Ohio State. I lived in Taylor Tower, attended classes on news reporting, photography, public relations and broadcasting. I met the journalism faculty and befriended students from all over Ohio. The journalism newsroom was organized chaos, and I loved it.
My English teacher encouraged me to apply to Ohio State, which I did. That was in 1968. I took Reporting 101, where we learned real-world skills — question everything, get the facts, check the facts, and remember who, what, when, where and why. Be objective. I knew I was ready to be a Lantern reporter.
When assignments were handed out, I took whatever I could get — mostly human-interest stories. I wrote about bats in the belfries around campus hoping to get the attention of the editor, Jay Smith. Those antiwar demonstrations on campus sure seemed more interesting, but I had a lot to learn. My first article came back from the copy editor and it looked like it bled out from all the handwritten, red ink corrections. I quickly learned to read copy edit marks and accept feedback. I was so proud when I saw my first byline and all those that followed. My name on a story was a reminder that I was responsible for fact finding and fairness to the 40,000 Lantern readers.
The old Lantern newsroom I knew from 1968 to 1972 had no air conditioning, no computers, old furniture, no electricity at times, a few landline phones, and clutter everywhere in a smoke-filled room. A far cry from the state-of-the-art newsroom opening today! But my time there helped me transition from my small hometown high school of 500. I could do what I loved to do with people who had similar interests.
Before I graduated in 1972, I was named editor of The Buckeye, the monthly OSU newsletter for the 18,000 nonacademic staff. Fresh off The Lantern, I used all my new skills including researching, writing and editing; taking and developing photos; meeting deadlines; cutting and pasting layouts; and then final editing before printing.
After almost five years it was time to give up my monthly publication and football tickets and move into the corporate world, where I have spent almost 50 years. Not a day goes by that I don’t practice my journalism skills. But for The Lantern? I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Editor’s Note: Patricia Boyer Miller (B.A. Journalism, 1972) was most recently, and for 16 years, COO/President of Nobel LearningCommunities, a national network of more than 200 private preschools and K-12 schools. She now serves as an adviser and board director for six for-profit and nonprofit boards. She also funds an endowment for Special Lantern editors who focus on investigative reporting. She divides her time between Wayne, PA, Naples, FL and a small town on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
