From the editor’s desk: A letter to start the semester

BY MACKENZIE JOHNSON

Editor-in-Chief

Getting to sit down and write an editor’s note is an unprecedented experience for me, but I wanted the chance to step outside the parameters of an article to mark the start of this new school year.

To put it simply, I am ecstatic to be serving as the fall 2025 TNS/J-TAC editor-in-chief. As an agricultural communications major graduating this December, this honor isn’t one I was certain I’d be in line for. My final semester of college is strictly internship-based, and my ability to continue my work here depended greatly on the internship I landed and its flexibility. Luckily, it was within reach for me to do a split internship – one with the Fort Worth–based magazine I have always dreamed of writing for and the other here, leading a team and student organization I have dreamed of serving since setting foot in our newsroom.

The position I am in right now may just be the most unique one of my life: pursuing a metropolis internship, taking on freelance opportunities on the side and being so close to my post-grad career while also growing even more intricately connected to this student newspaper and the university and city we are privileged to serve.

And now that I’m officially in this position, at the editor’s desk, I am honored with the opportunity not only to serve that community, but to lead a staff of such devoted and talented student journalists. As managing editor last semester, I got to directly behold the diverse mix of skills we harbor among our staffers, and no matter their specific area of brilliance—whether writing, editing, broadcasting, podcasting or marketing—the one thing they all have in common is their undeniable dedication to the job they do.

We are a tightly knit bunch, passionate about what we pour into the TNS/J-TAC, and I hope it shows in the work we put out on the racks.

This Back to School Edition you are holding is brought to you by various members of our Executive Team and J-TAC editors. It encapsulates everything this fall semester will likely entail—from new and exciting developments and successes to ways in which to tackle your own college career—but above all else, it contains the stories of students, told by students.

I can’t wait to share what we have in store this semester and for you to read the stories told by the rest of our staff, returners and newbies alike.

We are so glad to be here and welcome you back, Texans.

It is going to be a fabulous semester,

Mackenzie Johnson