Big choice looms as fifth-year senior nears graduation
Justin Arnold |
UW-Eau Claire Advanced Reporting Student
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001
Most students that are nearing graduation have a brief story about how they decided on their major.
But UW-Eau Claire senior Justin Arnold could recite a novel's worth of information about how he became a print journalism major.
Despite pursuing four majors at two universities during his college career, it was a discussion about sports and the media with a classmate that got Arnold interested in journalism.
“I thought that sounded really cool,” Arnold said of the chance of reporting on sports and actually getting paid for it. “So I went into journalism.”
Arnold's love of sports recently drew him to journalism, but has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.
He played football, basketball and baseball on and off at Stanley-Boyd High School before graduating in 1997. Arnold has also remained involved with recreational sports while in college.
"They just kind of entertain me," Arnold, 22, said of playing and watching sports. "It's kind of a break from the grind of everyday life."
But even though he plans to stay involved in sports for a long time, Arnold is not positive he will pursue a career in sports journalism.
“I’ll either do sports journalism or I’m thinking of becoming a pastor,” he said.
Though Arnold admits that he has never heard of a person desiring both of his potential career paths, he knows how he has reached the point he is at now.
“I never thought when I was little that I’d be doing this,” Arnold said of the options he will have when he graduates from UW-Eau Claire in December. “I guess it just worked out that way.”
Arnold attended Marquette University for one year until the spring of 1998. He studied international business only to discover the topic was too boring for him.
He then transferred to UW-Eau Claire as a sophomore in the fall of 1998 and has been there ever since. Before becoming a print journalism major, Arnold spent time as a teaching major and psychology major.
Arnold, however, has already learned of the late hours that can be required of a sports journalist. He had to cut short or turn down part-time jobs at The Chippewa Herald, the Leader-Telegram and UW-Eau Claire’s student newspaper, The Spectator, because of time constraints.
Arnold is spending a lot of the time that would be consumed by those jobs with his 21-year-old wife Lacey Arnold, Justin Arnold's high school sweetheart.
The two were married in June 2000, and Sept. 29 marked the six-year anniversary of when they first began dating.
Justin Arnold, a sociology minor, is considering accepting a job as a youth pastor at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Stanley. He has been a youth leader in the past and said taking the job could go a long way in determining whether he decides to become a pastor.
He corrects people who refer to him as "religious," preferring they describe him as involved in Christianity.
"I think the word 'religious' has a stigma," he said. "It involves politics and a lot of people are turned off by it.
"When I talk about Christianity it's more of just having a relationship with Christ," he said.
Two years ago a group of meetings with some college-age friends that weren't really sure what they wanted to do with their lives prompted Justin Arnold to think that about becoming a pastor..
But for now he’s not overly concerned about which career path he will choose.
“It’s like they say: 'Whatever the lord calls you to,'” he said.