By Janelle Mathews
Lumen Editor in Chief
Salutations Lumen readers,
I hope you all have had a fun and restful summer and are geared up for the beginning of the school year. I know I am excited to be back in Wisconsin, see all my friends and live in Clare apartments, just to name a few. I’m also very thrilled about the Lumen staff members this year! We have a few familiar names returning along with a bunch of new ones. Moreover, we have the biggest staff in well…forever!
Jessica Schurmann, assistant editor, is a senior studio art major with a psychology minor from Mauston, Wis. who spent last summer studying abroad in Florence, Italy. She also is a VU After Dark programming assistant, so she will be flitting around campus setting up fun-filled events, such as Minute to Win It. After Viterbo University, Jessica hopes to pursue student affairs even further and eventually work in a university setting as a study abroad coordinator.
Kelsey Pruitt is the Lumen business manager for the 2012-2013 school year on top of her many other pursuits; she is one of two Peer Advisors for Clare apartments and is in her senior year of nursing classes. Kelsey calls Chippewa Falls, Wis. her home, but she can do a great Minnesotan accent.
Sam Gobler from Eau Claire, Wis. is a senior visual communications major who will be graduating this December to go out into the “real world.” She is one of the returning Lumen staff members and has been on staff for the past three years as our graphic designer.
Molly Grosskreutz, arts and entertainment editor, is another returning staff member from right here in La Crosse, Wis. She studied abroad this summer in Lorraine, France. She is a senior liberal studies major with emphases in English writing and French. The summer before going to France, Molly was in Los Angeles as an intern for Escape Artists Entertainment reading scripts. After college, Molly hopes to become a screenwriter.
Valerie Groeber is the arts and entertainment assistant editor for the upcoming school year. She is a sophomore English major from Minneapolis, Minn. She is new to the Lumen team and devotes her free time to traveling.
Joycelyn Fish from Reedsburg, Wis. is the new campus life editor having previously been on staff as the online editor. She is entering her senior year at Viterbo University, and her major is organizational communication. Joycelyn, like Jessica and Molly, studied abroad, only she spent her time in Limerick, Ireland. She had an internship this summer with Lutheran Special School and Education Services in Milwaukee, Wis.
One of our assistant campus life editors will be Jessica Hartling who is from Waukesha, Wis. She is a junior biochemistry major who really enjoys Disney World, having gone there seven times. Moreover, she loves Harry Potter and even wants to get a Harry Potter-related tattoo.
Jordan Weiker is the other assistant campus life editor who is from Cashton, Wis. He is a sophomore English major who completed beauty school before deciding that the hair industry was not what he expected.
Dani Templin is the sports editor for Lumen from Richland Center, Wis. She is majoring in visual communications with an emphasis in digital media, but her true love is sports. She is a senior on Viterbo women’s basketball team and aspires to work in the sports broadcasting field after college.
Melissa Freund works alongside Dani as the assistant sports editor this year. She is a junior English education major joining Lumen for the first time from Marshfield, Wis. She has an artistic side, loving to draw and paint. Last year, she ate over nine jars of peanut butter.
After brief stints in the biochemistry, theatre and education departments, Tim Metzler from Onalaska, Wis. diverted his interests towards the humanities and has been an English major with a writing emphasis since his sophomore year. He participates in many on-campus groups and organizations, including being a Resident Assistant and columnist for Lumen. He aspires to attend comedy school and earn his MBA in the years that follow his undergraduate career.
Elizabeth Otto is the online news editor for Lumen. She is a sophomore psychology major from Siren, Wis. who enjoys listening to music.
And I am Janelle Mathews, a senior English literature major with minors in Spanish and environmental studies. I am the editor-in-chief of this year’s Lumen staff. I hail from Boscobel, Wis., and I spent my summer in Kansas as an editorial intern for MOTHER EARTH NEWS where I learned a lot about the magazine industry. I recently got hired as an agate sports clerk for Lee Enterprises which puts out many newspapers including the La Crosse Tribune and the Winona Daily News.
I hope that you, readers, will enjoy this year’s Lumen as much as the staff members like writing for it, so sit back, drink your coffee and read the Lumen.
Lumen 