Dear Readers,

I have had the pleasure of serving on The Ticker for four years and as a graduating member, this will be my farewell letter.

I started at The Ticker as a copy editor on a recommendation to join by production assistant Heather Shah. From there, I moved up to business editor, then copy chief and to the position I currently hold, editor-in-chief.

In the time I have been with the paper, I have learned a few things and with this letter, I hope to pass some on some of that knowledge

Firstly, try new things. Even though this seems like an obvious one, it is always worth your time to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. If I never did this, I would have never changed my major from marketing and became a double major in journalism and political science.

So go out, join some clubs and make the most of your time in college when you are back on campus. Joining The Ticker truly changed my life, and it is where I made friends that will last a lifetime.

Another way to make friends is to get out and explore the city. New York City is an amazing place, especially for someone who is not from it. So after the pandemic is over, try to see as much as you can of it. There are many opportunities to use discounts from CUNY to get into museums and other places for free.

Make time for the stuff you enjoy. It is hard to do at times, but it will help in so many ways. Take an hour or two and do what makes you happy, whether it’s painting, photography, reading or spending time with your family. Anything that will give you some time to contemplate on what you love best is good for your well-being.

Always practice kindness. It costs nothing to be kind and will give you so much in return. You never know what a kind action could mean to someone. A person could be having a bad day, and just offering up a compliment or some help could help boost their self-esteem or mood. So many times we are too quick to anger and instead, we should simply be kind.

Finally, persevere. I think this is the most important thing I learned from college. What I mean by this is that even when things are not going your way maybe you fail a class or struggle to make friends — keep going. As much as things keep coming, you have to move forward. Life will keep going, and so must you.

This year has really made this last point especially important. Through this pandemic, the paper had two options: shut down until we got back on campus or adapt our production. We chose the latter, and even though it was challenging to go fully online, we did it.

I am so proud that we were able to extensively cover the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests and many other topics of importance to the students of Baruch and CUNY. This year’s staff has achieved so much more than a normal year. We were even able to develop our new and improved Ticker website so that readers could easily navigate our hard work and efforts.

In this final part, I would like to thank a few people. Thank you to my dad and mom, who have put me through college and have been my biggest supporters. My sisters Ariel and Serena, my grandmother Angela and my faithful companions Bonnie and Ernest, who have immensely helped me on this journey.

Thank you to the staff who have done more than their fair share of the important work as student journalists. Thank you to former Ticker members Yelena Dzhanova for giving me a chance and Jonathan Sperling and Victoria Merlino, who taught me so much in preparation for this role.

Thank you to the Baruch administration, Damali Tolson and Suzanne Bronski for their advice and help that made running the paper a lot easier. Thank you to the journalism department, who helped The Ticker work through the challenges of student journalism with their invaluable experience.

Finally, to all the friends I have made along the way: it has been a pleasure to be a member of this community and to get to know you along the way.

Sincerely,
Noah Fleischman