SETH PRINCE

Now: Copy editor | The Oregonian

Then: 2000 copy chief, The Oklahoma Daily

When I think about my college years, The Oklahoma Daily is my first and finest memory. The lessons, experiences and relationships--including meeting my wife -- I came away with have been an enduring professional and personal gift.

The Daily gave me an essential and supportive place to experiment in journalism. I could take risks with the comfort of knowing that someone, usually editorial advisor Jack Willis, would save me from disaster if necessary and always teach me something along the way. Those newsroom trial-and -error endeavors, first as an intern and finally as an editor, taught me more than anything I ever gleaned from a textbook or classroom.

Like many, I arrived at OU with little idea where the future would lead. Student Media and the journalism school gave me and others the tools to succeed wherever that path went, whether in the state, across the nation or around the world.