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What do you do?
I'm a copy editor in Student Ministry Publishing, part of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Convention. Basically, LifeWay is the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest religious publishers in the world. We publish Sunday School material, Bible studies, devotional books, Vacation Bible School and other materials many Southern Baptist and non-SBC churches use. Student Ministry Publishing is geared toward 7-12th graders. I'm copy editor of Family Bible Study: Younger Youth, a dated quarterly Sunday School curriculum; LifeTrak Younger Youth, an undated quarterly Sunday School curriculum; Youth Vacation Bible School, a summertime study for youth; and I'm also working on a possible new product that will provide hot topic lessons, games and activities to youth ministers from the Internet. I'm the first person who works with the text we receive from our writers. Generally, I give the text a first read on the computer screen to find the most obvious mistakes - grammar, spelling, oddly constructed sentences, etc. - and fix it. I also apply the initial styles to the text that you see in the finished product and edit for clarity and theological accuracy according to the Southern Baptist standpoint. The next time I see the product is in laser stage - that's what we call it when the editor brings me an actual printout and I sit down with my pencil, dictionary, LifeWay stylebook and other resources and get to work. This is when I use the skills I learned in my magazine editing class most extensively. At this point, I check for grammar, seek permission for reprints and quotes, misspellings, spacing issues and check the resource names that are cross-referenced in the product. Later, I get an art laser, in which I usually check all the above again, and make sure all the art is there, in the correct places and not covering up text or distorting the page. I also prepare files for the CD-ROM resources we provide for the products on which I work, editing and reading them as much as I do the regular print pieces. I also keep track of writer contracts, process contracts for payment and keep up with the files that accompany every issue of every product to which I'm assigned.

How did you get your job?
I moved to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt Divinity School and got a part-time job in LifeWay's Communications Department (partially because the then-director was an MU grad). So I got my foot in the door as a temporary employee - I wrote for several LifeWay magazine publications and Baptist Press, an online newswire along the lines of the Associated Press, but geared toward Christians and most specifically, Baptists. As my graduation drew near, I learned my temporary job would not become permanent and I saw an opening for a full-time job as an editor in Student Ministry Publishing. I interviewed, the department director talked with my director in communications and in the end we all decided I didn't have enough experience or knowledge of LifeWay to work as an editor. So, they offered me a copy editing position with the opportunity to move up as I gain more experience.

Best professional lesson learned at the J-School?
At MU you are surrounded by super-talented, exciting, driven journalists-to-be. Your classes are challenging, and your classmates push you to be a better writer, editor, designer, photographer or whatever you may want to do. That's a good model to follow professionally also. If you choose jobs and places of employment in which you are surrounded by talented, driven people who truly enjoy what they do, you will also be better at what you do.

What is your best advice to current students?
Don't think of your years in the J-School as something you just have to suffer through before you can go out and rock the world of journalism. Write (or design/take pictures/create advertising campaigns/etc.) as much as possible. Learn from your fellow students and teachers, even when you think you have it all figured out already. Don't hurry through those J-School years simply to get to the "real world" of journalism. J-School provides important, extensive training, and it's hard (sometimes harder to handle and often requiring more work and effort than "real world" employment!). When you do get out into the real world, you'll discover that you have higher standards, a deeper work ethic and a stronger dedication to producing the best product than a lot of journalists in the field today.