Zoe Klein first stepped into the Liberator team as a staff writer in 2018. As the years continued, she came to be the Liberator’s co-editor-in-chief her senior year. Throughout her time, she developed many skills, such as managing a team with contrasting opinions, learning to meet deadlines, and spending lots of time writing. Now, she revisits how those skills she learned from the Liberator helped her spread her wings after leaving the team two years ago.
To Klein, the newspaper team helped her forge a strong connection with the LASA community. One of her fondest memories was her reporting for the Raptor Rundown, a Liberator segment that involves playing a sport at LASA with no prior experience, in 2021. For two weeks, she spent her afternoons with the LASA cheer team as they practiced drills and routines and recounted her experience in the Liberator.
“My childhood dream of becoming a cheerleader and my somewhat uncharacteristic love of football were not mutually exclusive anymore,” Klein said. “And I could do the splits.”
The experience led her to make new friends and uncover new talents. Writing for the newspaper always seemed to grow her as a person, and not just through her gymnastics skills. For example, this year, Klein has begun writing her thesis on the topic of Russian election interference. She’s begun to notice that her experience on the Liberator has allowed her to write her thesis more effectively than her classmates.
“I will be writing this for the next couple of years, so it’s been a big undertaking,” Klein said. “But there’s no doubt that the newspaper has helped me be ready for something like this.”
Klein explained that being a part of the Liberator also taught her to communicate with people who held opposing opinions from her. Her experience with the newspaper taught her to respect, appreciate, and learn from diverse perspectives and ideas.
“One of my editors, Nevin, had many different opinions from me,” Klein said. “Working with him taught me so much, even if we did have many arguments over our differing opinions.
Now, Klein is a junior majoring in Political Science at the University of Michigan. According to her, the Liberator shaped a significant part of her identity and deepened her understanding of the importance of a free press and the responsibility that comes with it.
“The Liberator helped me figure out what kind of person I am,” Klein said. “I know I can be a little bossy at times, but this role allowed me to embrace that part of myself, so I loved that.”
In college, Klein has taken her leadership skills and begun exploring a career in public policy. The interest in press rights she gained from the Liberator helped her find the inspiration for this career path.
“I am looking for some internships in DC for this summer, hopefully, where I can learn more about public policy and get a glimpse of what my life looks like in just about two years, which is kind of crazy,” Klein said.
Klein’s journey with the LASA Liberator was more than just a high school experience. It was a transformative period that gave her skills and character she would not have otherwise.
“I don’t know who high-school-me would have been without the Liberator, honestly…I loved my time at the Liberator,” Klein said. “It was hard, but so, so worth it. I learned so much more than I could have ever imagined.”
