Clarion editor’s dream faces uncertainty
Makenzi Johnson learned that an academic opportunity in New York City next year may be canceled and her plans might have to change.
By Rowan Shaw | Freelance Journalist
Makenzi Johnson, a journalism major at Bethel University, has recently been struck with some concerning news. King’s College, an Evangelical Christian college in New York is facing closure as a result of financial issues. Johnson was planning to attend this school next year, and now her educational future has been thrust into uncertainty.
Johnson came to Bethel from Fargo, North Dakota, looking for something new. She wanted to get away from Fargo and her old school. She wanted to choose somewhere based in the Christian faith with a student body and community she could engage with. While at Bethel, she took reporting on a whim, and met Journalism professor Scott Winter, who introduced her to journalism and also Bethel’s student newspaper, The Clarion.
Second Semester of Johnson’s freshman year, one of her mentors and editor of The Clarion, Emma Harville, came to her with an offer for the position of Lifestyle Reporter. Johnson accepted.
“That’s where I kind of fell into like my beat or my niche of journalism,” Johnson said. “And so lifestyle, I quickly realized, gave me a lot of creative freedom.”
Johnson continued to work for the paper into her sophomore year, becoming the Lifestyle Editor after the previous editor, Rachel Blood, as well as Winter, encouraged her to do so. She felt a little bit pressured into the role, but has ended up satisfied with her decision.
She became editor at a difficult time. The Clarion has been facing challenges recently due to budget cuts and overall student enrollment changes, but she hasn’t let that ruin the opportunity for her.
“It’s been fun. It just hasn’t been what I thought it would be,” Johnson said. “But I’m not upset about that.”
Johnson’s roommate since freshman year, Kya Nelson, has been friends with her since she first started in journalism as a fresh-faced student uncertain of a major. Throughout these years, Nelson has seen Johnson encounter and deal with struggles, especially as of late regarding The Clarion.
“At the beginning of the year, she was definitely really stressed,” Said Nelson. “But she’s done a really great job of kind of diving right in. …And so I think she did a great job of kind of riding the wave while it was at a really stressful point and then kind of doing everything that she could to bring it to a place where it felt more more stable and more organized.”
Alongside her position at The Clarion, Johnson also interns for the Pioneer Press, a Saint Paul-based newspaper. After submitting her resume, she met for coffee with the editor who is now her boss, thinking she would be attending an interview. To her surprise she already had the job, and her boss began explaining to her what the internship will look like.
Johnson has worked on mostly news stories for the Pioneer Press, often being in charge of press releases, but also got the opportunity to do a profile story on a 100-year-old World War II veteran, as well as an update story on a police shooting in Stillwater.
“I’d never done a crime story and that was crazy. … It was scary,” said Johnson. “But I learned a lot because I’ve never written like that.”
The internship has given Johnson exposure to a real journalism environment and allowed her to broaden her experiences outside of The Clarion. However, the extra commitment and work required by the internship has taken a toll on her.
“I don’t love it because it’s like I’m balancing school, plus The Clarion, plus Pioneer press and I’m trying to figure out plans for next year,” Johnson said. “But I know that I am learning a lot and I can agree with Scott when he says, like, ‘This is good for you’.”
After finishing her responsibilities in Minnesota with The Clarion and the Pioneer Press, she was going to go to New York. Bethel has a collaboration with King’s College there, in which students go there for a semester and study journalism, as well as enroll in a New York-based internship. This NYCS program had been her dream since freshman year when she first found out about the program.
Since she began her journalism career, she has dreamed of doing journalism in a large metropolitan city, and going to New York would give her a chance to experience that dream. At the beginning of the 2022–2023 school year she sat down with Winter and mapped out her plans for the coming year. She determined that the fall of her senior year she would go to New York for this program, and then once she returned to Bethel in the spring she would graduate early. This plan, however, would be challenged.
“Scott texted me … and said ‘Please come to my office at your earliest convenience’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a weird text’ to receive from him,” Johnson said.
“He just turns his, like, computer monitor to me and it’s a New York Times article saying how this small Christian School in the middle of Manhattan is shutting down. And I was like, I started like, laughing, because I was like, no, this is not real.” — Makenzi Johnson, Clarion editor
She obliged his request and briskly went to Winter’s office where she was greeted by a stoic, serious expression. An out of character thing for the usually upbeat and humorous Winter. She stood there in dead silence as Winter quietly looked to her then, to his computer and then back at her. He turned the screen to reveal an article from the New York Times, and the reason Johnson had been called there.
“He just turns his, like, computer monitor to me and it’s a New York Times article saying how this small Christian School in the middle of Manhattan is shutting down,” Johnson said. “And I was like, I started like, laughing, because I was like, no, this is not real.”
The rest of Johnson’s day was filled with tears. In the months leading up this moment, she enthusiastically explained her plans to friends and family
As of now, King’s College isn’t officially facing shutdown. Johnson still plans to apply for the position on the off chance King’s remains open next year.
“If that falls into place, fantastic. If it doesn’t, we know that it’s not supposed to happen,” said Johnson’s mother, Kristi Johnson. “If it doesn’t happen, that could certainly be God’s protection, that [she is] not supposed to be out in New York City this fall.”
Her mother is proud of Johnson for her accomplishments, no matter what comes of this scenario. She believes that her daughter has grown in her faith and character during her time at Bethel, and will come out of her college career a better person regardless.
“We’re going to just trust that she ends up finishing her last semester of school where she’s supposed to be,” Johnson’s mom said. “Whether that’s in New York City or whether that is at Bethel.”
