By Kathryn Severance
In late September, Assumption College’s chapter of The Odyssey online, dropped its first set of articles on the Odyssey’s website. The Odyssey’s Lauren Peacock recruited both writers and editor-in-chief, Kathleen Hurley, for the publication back in late August 2015.
According to the media company’s Facebook page, the Odyssey online, is a News/Media/Publishing group. It is also a “social content platform that crowd sources the ideas of Millennial thought leaders embedded in their local communities”.
Odyssey allows writers to upload their own work onto the website. Muse Content Platform allows them to add headlines, drop-headlines, taglines, slug lines for their URL address, choose the subject of their work and have a lot of participation in the entire processes associated with online publishing. This allows for the development of skills in all of these areas without holding editor positions. These articles are also edited by way of Muse Content Platform. After articles are submitted on Thursday nights, editor-in-chief, Kathleen Hurley opens the admin portion of the website and goes through each article to read it and make sure that adequate visuals are provided for each article.
The group is not an official College-approved club. They were established and continue on the basis of Odyssey online. For this reason, Assumption’s chapter of the Odyssey, is not in affiliation with Assumption’s Campus Life organizations. They stick to the same basic publishing rules that apply to the College’s campus newspaper, Le Provocateur. This means that they avoid publishing on topics related to, or promoting the use of birth control, in accordance with Catholic traditions. They meet in Charlie’s on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m.
Assumption College’s chapter has featured a wide array of writers who are undergraduate students at the College. It currently includes Le Provocateur Newspaper’s Arts and Entertainment Editor, Caroline Critelli, the Student Government Association’s Brian Belleville and The Assumption women’s swim team’s Kellie Duquette. It has also featured junior, Edward McMahon, of the Assumption environmental group, Greenhounds.
The College’s chapter of Odyssey is always recruiting new writers. This writer also helps to recruit contributors who from the College’s student undergraduate community. Junior Morgan Hakala become a staff writer for the publication. Hakala’s first article for the publication was released this week, on Monday, October 26.. It is titled, “Why Friends is still relevant on TV today”.
The publication is unique, in that it gives a monetary award to the writer for each college’s chapter, who receives the most views and shares on their article for the current week. It is awarded in the form of a check. As of now, the College’s monetary award for this is $20, but the award can increase based upon the size of the publication. The College’s Brian Belleville, has been a repeated winner of this reward. He was awarded this week for his article, “So you’re a third wheel?”
This writer also contributes to Odyssey online and is currently their only staff news writer. I wrote a piece about the 2015 Fire and Safety report, as well as pieces on Lifestyle, Sports, and Lookbook.
The Odyssey Online was established in 2014. It is mostly viewed by teens, college students, and young adults. It features articles on the topics of News, Lifestyle, Sports, Lookbook,
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