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I am saying goodbye to an old friend this month, one who changed my life when I was 24. I left everything — my boyfriend, a job at a quirky newspaper, a quiet mountain town outside of Aspen — for the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä journalism school. And I never looked back.

Len Ackland (A&S’66) taught me to ask hard questions and provide a balanced story. Tom Yulsman took the class to a tall grass prairie to train us to transform dry science into stories people talk about in coffee shops and Congress. Robert Trager’s media law class illuminated the intersection of free speech and the press.

Moreover, I learned a good story is like an old friend who shares hard truths, abides by strong ethics and stays with you. When the school closes June 30 [see article], I hope future journalism grads learn this and more as they produce their first drafts of history.