Student Journalism Leads to More for Entrepreneur

Writing about everything from blood drives to the Super Bowl led to business opportunities for Journalism and Mass Communications major Ella Goettemoeller, from Lincoln, Nebraska.

She is already making an impact as a staff writer for The Circuit, the student newspaper at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where has had the opportunity to cover subjects from the Red Cross to the NFL — and she hopes the range of experience will help her build a career path in communications.

Now, as she recently announced on LinkedIn, “I’m excited to announce a new project I’ve been working on for Prairie Oak Publishing & Consulting to help promote their new publication, Stations of the Resurrection.”

Goettemoeller’s articles in The Circuit show her range. She brings humor to a guide to places to visit in Atchison. In Goettemoeller’s description, Sacred Heart Variety Store in town is a “retro thrift treasure hunt,” and “savings with soul.” She describes the Catholic bookstore Pace e Bene as “Study scene meets snack break meets gelato,” and announces that espresso shots and ice cream cones “feel like rewarding your brain and soul after a long afternoon of reading.”

But she captures a very different mood in an article about a Project Rachel speaker’s visit to campus earlier this year. Project Rachel is a Catholic ministry dedicated to post-abortion healing. “A quiet stillness filled the O’Malley-McAllister Auditorium,” her piece begins, “as students and community members gathered for a conversation many said is rarely heard in public.” It ends: “As the audience filed out quietly, the message lingered: despair does not have the final word, and hope often begins when someone is willing to listen.”

Goettemoeller’s practical guide to the campus’s perpetual adoration chapel makes adoration feel achievable. She also introduces the new Technology and Human Dignity student club as a way to explore the intersection of theology, technology, and daily life.

She said that the mission of Benedictine College has made a significant impact on her life.

“My favorite thing about Benedictine” is the mission, she said, “the community of faith and scholarship. The people you interact with on a daily basis … have a ripple effect in your life and in your heart.”

Integrating community, faith, and scholarship makes each aspect of the mission stronger, she said.

Community is enhanced by faith and scholarship. “People here act with such wholesomeness and truly just out of love of God and that shows,” she said. “It really nurtures the friendships and relationships that we have here.”

Faith is enhanced by community and scholarship. “I think Benedictine has formed me into a better disciple, and I know that’s like a really broad term, but I think that sums up very nicely what we’re each called to be,” she said.

Scholarship is enhanced by community and faith. “I came from public school, so coming here has been super impactful,” she said. “Now I get to think about God in everything I am learning, like in lab. Studying creation but also getting to know the creator at the same time. It’s just a really beautiful lens in my life that I didn’t know I was missing.”

Goettemoeller has known about Benedictine College for a long time. “My grandma, my mom, my aunt and my sister all went here,” she said. “It’s pretty awesome to have a long line of people who have attended Benedictine.”

She is recognizable on campus thanks to Caspian, her seizure alert service dog. “He’s gone through so much with me — all of high school, summer vacations, flying, and canoe trips,” she said. “He’s my best friend and I’m very thankful that he’s here with me.”

Ultimately, she says on LinkedIn, “I am interested in pursuing a career in strategic communication … from identifying an organization’s goals and understanding its audience to selecting the right channels and tailoring messages that create value for both the organization and the people it serves.”

By Editorial Staff