A STAFF LETTER: Look back, look forward, and thank you

Photo By Kim De Guzman/The Chameleon. We can have our cake…and eat it too! Happy summer, Loyola! Good luck on finals!

Dear Loyola University Chicago (and the world),

It’s incredibly hard to believe we’re near the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

As we look back on all the memories, the Chameleon staff and I particularly reminisce at the year we’ve had here working at this publication.

The Chameleon was founded because we believed there was no student media publication on campus that catered to an alternative audience.

We also believed there was no official campus magazine that allowed students of all majors to come together and produce a work that interested them.

This magazine has come a long way in the past nine months. A year ago, the Chameleon wasn’t even conceptualized as an idea yet.

When we first started in November 2011, we weren’t officially approved as a student organization, and our WordPress website only had 10 articles on it.

We also only had a staff of about 20 students, both editors and contributors.

And nobody knew what to expect from us.

Now in September, we look forward to welcoming you back to campus with our very first printed edition.

We look forward to welcoming new members to our team.

We look forward to new coverage of our alternative sections. We also welcome a new theme to our coverage: culture/race/ethnicity.

But as we look ahead to next school year, we’d like to take the time to express our sincerest gratitude to the people, student organizations, and university departments who have helped us out this year:

-We’d like to thank you, the Loyola campus, for welcoming us as warmly as you have. Over the past few months, your reactions to the various published content remind us every day of why we wanted this to happen for the campus. Always remember that the Chameleon is for you.

-We’d like to thank the different student organizations and university departments that have supported us and helped us grow this year, including Water Tower Campus Life, Student Activities and Greek Affairs, the School of Communication, the Women and Gender Studies Department, and University Marketing and Communication.

-I’d like to thank the entire Chameleon crew, editors and contributors alike, who give so much time and effort producing different content and running the publication each week. This magazine would not be possible without you and your dedication. You should be proud of yourselves! :]

-We’d also like to give a shout out to our beloved advisor, Ralph Braseth. Ralph’s been there since the Chameleon’s inception at the beginning of the school year and he’s gone out of his way countless times throughout the year to show his support and help us get off the ground.

Good luck on final exams, Loyola!

Here’s to a great summer and an amazing 2012-2013 school year!

Cheers until our first issue in September!

Sincerely,

Kim De Guzman, Editor-in-Chief

and the super awesome possum 2011-2012 LUChameleon crew :]