Oh, wow, where do I begin? There are so many people I need to thank for being able to have this amazing opportunity as the Editor-in-Chief of the Exponent, so in no particular order:
I need to express my deepest in sincerest gratitude towards the Editor-in-Chief before me, Natalie Downie. Natalie was one of the first friends I made on campus, and without her I never would have joined the Exponent, never would have discovered my love for newswriting and never would have had such an amazing college experience. I say this with no exaggeration that Natalie has influenced my life more than anyone else on the planet and I could not be more thankful to her for it.
Thank you to John Rodwell, the Editor-in-Chief when I first joined the Exponent as a volunteer. I still miss the late nights in Warner and your genuine glee towards everything. You had a passion that spread to everyone around you, and I cannot express enough how important you were in keeping the Exponent afloat during an extremely rough time for us.
A huge thank you to Morgan Fuerstenberg, Veronica Hausser and Nick Wagner for being wonderful, kind-hearted and empathetic people. When I first joined the Exponent over three years ago, I was extremely terrified to be meeting so many new people at once. You all instantly made me feel welcome and I cannot thank you all enough.
Dr. Pip Gordon, thank you. Thank you for being there, thank you for supporting us when we needed it the most. I will always look fondly on the memories of half the Exponent staff bothering you in your office at midnight.
Gabe Farr, thank you for taking the reins from me. I know you’re going to be a phenomenal Editor-in-Chief and I cannot wait to see how the Exponent grows under your leadership.
Nat Poeschel, thank you for stepping into the role of our Social Media Manager and then Chief Copy Editor. You have always gone above and beyond in your work, and I will always be grateful for how much effort and dedication you put into your position.
Abigail Shimniok, thank you for being a wonderful Graphics Editor and Business Ad Manager. You are a breath of fresh air in the office, and I cannot emphasize enough how much you brought to the table. I’m going to miss your extremely uncomfortable 3-D graphics.
Ethan Pulvermacher, thank you for sticking around, despite your horrendous schedule. Thank you for taking the time to write articles, research new stories, learn layout and be a part of copy editing every week. Finally, thank you for your restraint for not murdering me in the office, despite how many times I loudly ate chips and pistachios in front of you.
Ethan Hack, thank you for your stunning feature photos every week. Thank you for doing the unenviable task of having to teach me how to use photoshop to correctly color convert your photos.
Ella Madsen, thank you for really stepping up to the plate this year. You absolutely crushed it with your amazing graphics. I am so excited to see what you create next. You are a delightful person to have in the office and I was so lucky to be able to work with you.
Isabelle Emerson, thank you for joining the Exponent after I harassed you endlessly into signing up. Thank you for helping me sort out all the Exponent’s hate mail over this past year.
Zach Hammel, thank you for making some amazing graphics this year. Your Frankenstein Pioneer Pete is still giving me nightmares. Thank you for not only learning how Adobe Illustrator works but always being ready to make our stupid graphic ideas a reality.
Jace Lasco, thank you for being an amazing Circulation Manager and making our jobs at the Exponent infinitely easier. Without you, nobody would read our paper, and I can’t emphasize how much I appreciate you helping us out.
Shaylynn Perry, thank you for your crossword submissions, you made our production nights a lot more fun.
Angel. Thank you. Thank you for always being in my corner. Thank you for always encouraging me and supporting me throughout my college career. I am so incredibly lucky to have you in my life. Genuinely, thank you, for everything.
Dr. David Gillota, thank you for being our advisor, despite the many, many challenges we’ve thrown at you. Hopefully next year will be smooth sailing. Thank you for allowing our E-board to self-regulate and truly be a student run newspaper.
Sara Koeller, where do I even begin? The rest of this page could be filled with nothing but words of gratitude and it still wouldn’t be close to enough to express how thankful I am for the work you’ve done for us. Without Sara, the Exponent would not exist in any capacity.
Thank you to the entirety of Woodward printing but especially to Angie and Cindy who have been nothing but extremely helpful and essential to our newspaper being on print.
Thank you to Diana Blindert for graciously helping us with the delivery of our newspaper. Thank you for supporting us and being patient during the growing pains of this year.
Thank you to everyone in the community who has ever picked up our paper and supported us. We are flattered to be Platteville’s student-run newspaper.
When I first joined the Exponent, I mainly did it to get this girl in my creative writing class to stop bugging me about it. I cannot imagine how different my college career would have been if I didn’t walk up to the fourth floor of Warner (rip) and through the front door of the Exponent office.
I know I will always look back fondly on the late nights, the pushing cars out of ditches, the computers crashing at exactly 6 p.m. and all the lovely people I have been able to work with these past three years.
So long Exponent, it’s been a fun ride.
Love, Kaz B(r)esnan, Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus