Katie Campbell showed up out of the blue to Journalism II class one Thursday morning in late January. As a nursing major, she wasn’t enrolled in the class and had no real reason to be there – other than a nagging passion for journalism lingering from high school.
Campbell has continued to show up to Journalism II and consistently contribute to The Villager over the past three months alongside staff reporters, culminating last Friday when she was interviewed and selected to serve as Editor in Chief for the 2024-25 school year.
Upon meeting Campbell, there is an obvious sense of joy and empathy that is a consistent trend throughout her life a student journalist.
At Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland, Campbell first found her passion for journalism as a sophomore during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I wanted to be an author and then in high school I joined my newspaper just for an elective class and then my teacher told me ‘now you need to go interview some random person’ and I totally started freaking out,” Campbell said. “I was writing an article about different cultures at my school and I interviewed this Russian kid who had really long blonde hair and a thick accent… but he told me so many stories about living in Russia. Then I interviewed a girl from India and she was telling me about all of this food that sounded really good and I started getting more and more comfortable. That was when I realized I really want to go into something in which I can talk to people and make strong relationships.”
It was clear that she had a gift for journalism, subsequently serving as feature editor and eventually online editor in chief for her high school’s student publication, The Pitch.
“What’s impressed me about Katie is her ability to talk with strangers,” said senior lecturer and faculty adviser to The Villager Jeff Browne. “As noted, I think there’s something related there to being a nursing major, but it’s absolutely vital for journalists to be able to talk to strangers… Katie never hesitated, we ask her to interview someone it was never a problem. Very impressive.”
As a nursing student and journalist, Campbell draws on parallels between the two fields.
“Nursing is perfect. Nurses are besides [patients] and they’re the ones making those connections and so journalism has really played a factor in helping me choose what I want to do after college,” Campbell said.
The first-year has a specific vision for what she pictures in the paper’s future.
“Over the next year I want more viewers and a really diverse range of viewers,” Campbell said. “I want to cover a wide range of clubs and people and get people to tell their friends about [The Villager].”
For Campbell, the fascination with journalism has always been about telling human interest stories which she continues to make a growing focus for The Villager moving forward. Over the past month, she has been a driving force behind the recent “Humans of Stevenson” stories published.
“I want to cover a lot of human interest because I think it will attract a lot of people. People really care if you write about them and they really do love reading about other people,” Campbell said.
Outside of her school-related activities, Campbell is passionate about a wide range of hobbies including writing, reading, art, playing on Stevenson’s women’s club soccer team. She also spends her little free time coaching local youth soccer.
“I work with this program called Soccer Shots so I coach little kids ages 2-7, and they’re so adorable” Campbell said. “Last Friday I was coaching at my school and this one little kid came up to me and said ‘Coach Katie I got this for you,’ and gave me a little plastic gem… Now it’s in my wallet.”
Whether it’s in the classroom or on the field, Campbell brings to The Villager her innate ability to connect and seek out building strong relationships.
Over the last few weeks of the semester, Campbell will be working with the current staff to look for similarly passionate students who are looking to contribute in some capacity to The Villager in the coming semester. More information on available positions including an application form will be available on the site later this week.
