Logan Connor is a first-year strategic communications major who writes “Connor’s Corner” for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.
Coming to Ball State was a decision I didn’t make lightly.
Entering my senior year of high school, the college decision process was honestly the most difficult and terrifying time of my life. I was faced with questions like: Do I want to continue playing baseball? Was I ready to hang up the days of being an athlete to focus on my future? Sports can only take you so far, right?
But this was all I ever knew.
Even before that summer between junior and senior year, I had been thinking about what my future would look like. Was I ready to move into focusing on academics and putting my future first? Did I want to hold onto every last breath I had on a baseball field?
What would I say now if I could go back and tell that Logan one thing? Trust yourself. You know what is right for you, and trust your gut. I know now I made the right decision. The days of doubting, leaving baseball in high school and moving on to my future are behind me.
I chose Ball State from a list of schools for one major factor: the Ball State Daily News.
I had a handful of small, private, Division III schools looking at me for baseball. All were expensive, academically rigorous and had incredibly small-school baseball programs. Did I want to keep balancing athletics and the academics of college?
I had applied to a handful of other schools for academics. Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Cincinnati, Butler, and even one out-of-state school, the University of Iowa, were among a few. One common theme among those institutions is reputable journalism programs.
But the one that always stuck was Ball State.
I applied for early action, just like every student wanting to come study at Ball State’s renowned School of Journalism and Strategic Communication. I quickly got a return email within a few weeks saying I had been accepted. Before I had even been on campus or come to Muncie, I made the deposit.
In that spot, in my high school journalism lab, I hit “accept offer.” I had barely even talked with the people close to me about it. Something came to me, and I knew this was where I should be.
I knew I wanted to be part of the Daily News and wanted to help the incredible team cover sports. I had heard from a student I went to high school with almost weekly about the things that were happening in the UML and the community.
Hearing from Elijah Poe about all of the opportunities and options here at Ball State had me sold. I received texts and Snapchat photos of the dorms, the campus and the academic buildings. The photos I saw of the UML had me genuinely astonished, and I had a feeling I would end up here.
Like I said, choosing Ball State came back to wanting to write for the Daily News. I heard of the opportunities here, and the biggest opportunity that I heard of was the travelling the staff did.
I heard of traveling to places like Tennessee and Georgia for football, Mid-American Conference (MAC) campuses for basketball, and many other high school gyms and fields. In my two-and-a-half semesters in Muncie, I have visited some incredible places.
The most recent and incredible visit was to Cleveland.
A team of six members of the Daily News, including me, embarked on the annual trip to Cleveland to cover the MAC Basketball Tournament. We rode in two vehicles across Ohio, making a few pit stops before arriving in “The Land.”
Myself, Zach Carter, Derran Cobb, Poe, Andrew Berger and Titus Slaughter spent five days in Cleveland, and we had an incredible experience.
From hotel room laughs to dinners in different restaurants around the city, the experience was unforgettable. We not only got to cover a Division I (D1) conference tournament, but we also made memories that will last us a lifetime.
While covering the tournament, Poe and I were able to cover the Ball State women’s program winning a MAC Tournament title just a week after watching them win the regular season title in Worthen Arena.
We were able to experience going on a work trip as college students to work on our craft in a real-world environment. That kind of experience isn’t something students at those other schools I applied to have.
Working for a publication like the Daily News isn’t an opportunity students have everywhere. One thing that I truly love about our publication is the fact that we’re open to everyone. It doesn’t matter what you’re studying, you can come be part of this incredible staff.
Other schools require their staffers to be in the journalism field of study, while other schools require them to try out for staff and go through application processes. But at the Daily News, our arms are wide open, and I love that.
We left for Cleveland March 11, around nine in the morning. We stopped at the Neil Armstrong Museum in Ohio before driving another hour to Mansfield, Ohio. There, we stopped for lunch before making the final two hours to Cleveland.
Thanks to the donors and funding within the SJSC, we stayed at an incredible Hotel Indigo in downtown Cleveland. We were able to walk to Rocket Arena every day in under five minutes for work.
Thanks to all the support, we were able to stay in the heart of Cleveland and experience the city when we were not working.
As a freshman journalist, this experience was one I will never forget. I was able to cover DI athletics while also experiencing a city I had never been to. I was able to see a Major League Baseball stadium, work in an NBA arena and feel like I was working as a reporter out of college.
To be able to gain that kind of work experience as a freshman is something not everyone gets.
From March 12 to 15, we covered three games, produced a ton of online content, watched basketball non-stop and made inside jokes that we are still laughing about.
The biggest takeaway from the trip was truly the work experience and content we produced, but even more importantly, the were the laughs and memories made.
I tell any high school senior on the fence about Ball State to think about the opportunity we have here, and I would tell them to read this column. Not every school allows freshmen, or any student, to travel like this and not have to worry about the financials.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Ball State, and thank you to the Daily News. I could not imagine myself anywhere else.
Contact Logan Connor via email at logan.connor@bsu.edu or via X @_loganconnor.
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