“I love being a reporter more than anything I have ever done,” Stauffer said. “I love getting the chance to sit down with people and listen to them talk.”

Stauffer began her college career at Butler Community College with the intention of becoming an elementary school teacher, but her thoughts quickly changed when an English teacher opened her eyes to great writing.

“I wrote better because of her,” Stauffer said. “I wanted to impress her.”

Stauffer’s thoughts about writing overshadowed thoughts about teaching. For a while, she decided to get the best of both worlds and teach high school English.

“Then after working as a secretary at West High School for three years, the last thing I wanted was to step foot back into a school,” she said. “So that left me looking for a job that would let me write and keep me away from large crowds of teenagers.”

She decided on print journalism at WSU’s Elliott School of Communication.

Getting back to college was a challenge for Stauffer, who dropped out of high school both her junior and senior years, had three children by the time she was 20 and was divorced at 22.

“I was definitely not on a path that would lead to any kind of college degree or graduation ceremony,” she said.

But because she had supportive people in her life, Stauffer said she was able to wade through the mess.

“I certainly could not have done this alone,” she said.

Now, at 34, she is happily married and has a college graduation ceremony coming up quickly on her calendar.

“I have an awesome husband who goes to work every day so I could chase this degree all these years,” she said.

In the class, Anderson gave the students a list of beats, or areas to cover. Stauffer chose to cover the WSU Physical Plant.

“I thought it would be nice to deal with adults,” she said.

However, she didn’t know the Physical Plant and the campus newspaper had a “chilly” relationship.

“I was supposed to get one story a week from them, and they didn’t want to have anything to do with me,” she said.

She remembers sitting on her couch and saying to her husband with tears in her eyes, “I’m not a reporter. I can’t be a reporter.”

But she kept trying and ended the semester with at least four good stories from the Physical Plant.

“Les said it was the most coverage of the Physical Plant he had seen in years,” Stauffer said. “It toughened me up some, that’s for sure.”

Because of that class, Stauffer doubted her career choice, but, in the end, journalism was cemented in her future.

Stauffer has taken her experience in journalism to student positions at the WSU Foundation, The Wichita Eagle and the American Red Cross.

At the foundation, she gained valuable experience in public relations. She worked with people who establish scholarships for WSU students.

Last January, Stauffer interned at The Eagle for two weeks. She said she got a new story to cover each day, and she loved it.

After finishing a story about an RV show at the Kansas Coliseum, she called her husband to tell him how much fun she was having.

“I knew that if I could have that much fun reporting on RVs, I was in the right field,” she said.

Now, Stauffer writes for The Eagle as a freelance reporter.

“It’s just as exciting as it was before, but now I’m getting paid to do it, which is really nice,” she said.

Stauffer is finishing up an internship with the American Red Cross Central Plains Blood Services Region, during which she has helped create marketing materials and use social media to spread the message about the importance of donating blood.

After graduation, she wants to write and tell stories for a news publication or a nonprofit organization.

“Because I love writing and storytelling so much, I know I can make a difference in either field,” she said.

Similar to other graduating seniors, Stauffer would like to have a job lined up before walking at commencement, but she is mentally prepared if she doesn’t find one.

“The job I get might not look at all like what I thought it would when I first went back to school,” she said. “The whole world is making big changes these days. If you’re not going to be flexible, you’re going to miss out.”

And she knows communities will always need someone to report on what is going on locally.

While she’s job hunting after graduation, Stauffer will continue to cook her family healthful dinners, torture her teenagers by making them watch great black-and-white classic films and go to as many Dave Matthews Band concerts as she can in one year.

“We are currently up to 18 times,” she said, of the concerts.

Stauffer will graduate magna cum laude Sunday, Dec. 13, with honors.