The Old Gold & Black’s hiring session concluded at the end of Interim 2023, resulting in the hiring of nine new staff members. We hired four new writers, three new photographers and two new web designers.

Our new writers are Aiden Lockhart ’26, Catherine Lesesne ’26, Makiya Smith ’26 and Nola Webb ’26.

Our new photographers are Hailey Hirter ’26, Caroline Parker ’26 and Addie Porter ’26.

Our new web designers are Nick Ross ’26 and Taylor Stingel ’25.

The staff had much to say about their new positions and how they plan to approach their respective roles.

“I wanted to be a staff writer because I find the news interesting. It turns out there are many things, national and local, that affect Wofford students,” Lockhart said. “I look forward to making all kinds of stories interesting for my fellow Terriers.”

Lockhart was previously a contributing writer and has already written on the history behind different building names and on various political issues that affect Wofford.

“I’m most excited to learn more about journalistic writing, and I hope to impact the paper by writing about important topics on campus,” Smith said.

“I’ve always loved to write and felt like I finally found an enjoyable writing outlet through my high school newspaper,” Webb said. “When I got to Wofford, I was super excited to get involved in Old Gold & Black as a contributing writer.”

Webb joined the paper in the Fall 2022 semester as well, and she believes being a part of this publication helped her to grow within her first semester at Wofford.

“I felt like this position not only helped me grow as a writer, but also helped me to find my place in the Wofford community during my first semester,” Webb said. “I’m excited to continue writing as a staff writer this semester and hope to write more about local and campus events.”

“I applied to be a staff writer because I want to pursue journalism after college, and being on the Old Gold & Black staff would help me gain more experience,” Lesesne said.

This semester, I am very excited to help deliver news to the Wofford community, and I look forward to doing so with the sunshine and warmer air alongside me.”

Last semester, we did not have any hired photographers on staff, so it is exciting to have those positions filled and begin to use pictures from our own staff.

“I decided to apply for a photographer position on Old Gold and Black because I love taking pictures and wanted to get involved on campus,” Porter said. “I’m excited to capture different events during spring semester and hope to provide high quality photos for the paper.”

“I enjoyed going to different events that I wouldn’t have normally gone to; it felt like I was getting the inside scoop,” Parker said. “I am excited to continue highlighting the Wofford community.”

Porter and Parker were both contributing photographers during the fall 2022 semester, which is a volunteer photography position.

“I had previous work involving photography, which led to me jumping on the chance to apply for this position on the Old Gold & Black. I’m excited to take photos throughout the year and share them through the outlet of the newspaper,” Hirter said. “I also can’t wait to get to know my staff members and work with them.”

Similar to the photography position, the Old Gold & Black was working without a website designer for the past semester, so we are excited to have some experienced individuals take on the duties and creative freedoms of designing our website.

“I love working with computers and technology and want to gain more experience working on websites,” Ross said. “I hope to improve the website experience for OG&B’s online readers and work to increase the number of readers.”

“I decided to apply as the website designer because I wanted to get involved in the newspaper and have always loved digital and web design,” Stingel said. “I am most excited to just get started and become a part of such an important thing on this campus.”

The Old Gold & Black is eager to begin this semester with these new staff members. Please also note that, just because the hiring season for the Spring 2023 semester is over does not mean we are not still looking for contributors.

For more information on how to contribute to our student newspaper, please email Brandi Wylie at [email protected].