You want to work for the Northern Star.

You’re a freshman/transfer/summer school student, sitting somewhere on campus, reading this column, and you’re thinking, “Well, I don’t know if that’s true…” But it is, or it should be.

It’s the only place on (or off) campus you’ll be paid to write, take photos, shoot video or participate in any other number of jobs while choosing your own hours, making friends who will happily give feedback on your class papers, meeting alumni who love to offer their support and connections to help your post-graduation career and, every now and then, using the office as a place to nap or cram for finals. Sometimes there’s food out if we’re feeling crazy.

On top of all that, the Star is a teaching resource. If you don’t know how to capture and edit video, we have staff who will teach you, just as they’re happy to teach you anything else. You can even take the Northern Star as an internship so you receive credit for working there.

The Star’s not just for the “I want to be a journalist” types, either. The Northern Star’s alumni are business owners, attorneys, married with children, teachers and members of any career path you can think of. And, yes, we have many journalists, with a Pulitzer Prize winner and a well-known Sun-Times columnist thrown in since I’m trying to impress you.

The Star is one of those rare places that offers opportunities for everyone. It’s one of the top college newspapers in the state if not the top (my vote goes to “the top”). Our staff members regularly take home first-place plaques for individual awards, and then they brag about those awards to bosses across the world to get post-graduation jobs and summer internships.

Those same kids will cart off those plaques, crying, when they say goodbye to the newsroom at graduation. More than a few of them have told me they want to get Northern Star tattoos because they are so fond of the paper and their memories there.

So, you want to work at the Northern Star. You may not know if it’s right for you, but there’s no harm in trying it out. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my life. Let it be the same for you.