The Sunflower
Since 1896, students have been publishing The Sunflower, Wichita State University’s editorially independent student newspaper. The current staff publishes a print newspaper once per week and publishes nearly every day digitally, through their website (thesunflower.com) and social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Students who work for The Sunflower sometimes complain about the long hours, low pay and chaotic working conditions, but each knows they are getting valuable, on-the-job training in writing, photography, videography, social media, website management, layout and design, marketing, collaboration, advertising sales and more. Plus, they rarely stop having fun.
About 50 students work for the news organization, representing all academic colleges at Wichita State. It takes more than news junkies writing about student government, crafting fun features and staying on top of Shocker sports to put out the paper.
The Sunflower has earned numerous state and national accolades for work over the past decade, most recently the All-Kansas award for print newspaper and online news outlet from Kansas Collegiate Media in 2022 and 2023, the national Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press for print newspaper in 2021 and 2022 and for online in 2022.
Working for The Sunflower is both a good resume builder and a way to get on-the-job training fast. The Sunflower is often looking for fresh, energetic students to join the staff — with key hiring times being the weeks leading up to the start of both fall and spring semesters.
Contacts:
Amy DeVault, Sunflower faculty adviser
amy.devault@wichita.edu
Mia Hennen, Editor
editor@thesunflower.com
For more information: