Around here, the end of each semester brings with it a bag of mixed emotions. This week is no different. As we say good-bye to this semester’s Interns and student workers, we know that, even though we’ll miss them, they move forward with a new set of skills and real life experience. This week is a celebration of our students. We are proud of each and every one of them.
To end the semester, I asked the students who are moving on to write reflections on their time with the University Press of North Georgia. Below is the first response to be posted, written by our Student Worker, Melanie Jeanty.
“The University Press of North Georgia was a great opportunity for me. I learned so much about publishing and editing. This is an experience that, being a music major, I would probably never had gotten. I got to see first-hand how much work and time is put into a book before it gets released into the public. I give the staff a lot of credit for everything that they do. Publishing a book is a long strenuous process that can easily put a strain on the mind, but April, Matt, and the rest of the staff easily grab a hold of each project and mold it into something that is worth reading.
- Melanie Jeanty, Student Worker, Fall ’11 & Spring ’12
The best part about the University Press of North Georgia is that even though it is a professional publishing company, it still works with the school and allows for students to be involved the whole way through the publishing process, the interns, however, are more involved than the rest. They edit, review, and design works to make them what they currently are after publishing. Since I am not an English major, I wasn’t too involved in the detailed work of publishing, but I did read some proposals and edit a few readings. It is an experience that I will never forget.
The University Press taught me basically how to be a secretary, which was fun since I’ve always wanted to know what it would be like. They have also taught me to pay close attention to detail. Before working at the University Press, I was completely oblivious to everything. I notice now that I remember things better and I no longer nonchalantly do things. In a way, the University Press has made me a better student. Now I know that the closer the attention you pay to detail, the better things will turn out resulting in a better overall grade, which is extremely important to a musician and the utilization of their practice time. The more detail-oriented a musician is, the better the music sounds to the listener. This was a great opportunity for me, and I will truly miss the staff members of the University Press. They were all a big help to me as I hope I was for to them. “