Calvin graduate Brandon Schreur now writes for the Daily News in Montcalm County, Michigan. Having studied film studies and writing, he considers it a blessing to cover a variety of stories for the Daily News, blending his two passions.
What is your role at the Daily News?
I am supposed to write five to six stories per week. So, basically, I submit a publication once per day. I cover a couple different townships in Montcalm County. So, I’ll do general news and whatever else goes on in those townships. Every Saturday, we pick a local business from the county and we talk to them, cover them, and just see what they’re up to. It’s really fun.
How do you incorporate your passion for film into this job?
Each writer has their own beat, and mine is arts and entertainment (A&E). If there’s ever an A&E story, I get to cover it. I cover music festivals, and I get to interview people involved in film a lot because there are a decent number of people working in film living in Montcalm county.
Just hearing people’s stories is where I think film comes in. I’m really interested in the stories of everything. I’m not always great at sharing details about myself, but I love hearing other people talk about their lives.
What’s your favorite part about this job?
I really like meeting a whole bunch of different people. I once talked to a high school student who started his own bee business where he raises honey bees and sells their honey. Yesterday, I talked to a 70-year-old woman who just started her own purse store in this tiny town. Just hearing people’s life stories is very interesting.
What advice would you give to Calvin students studying film or communication in general?
Get involved as much as you can. You will learn a lot in your classes, but the best thing for me was the hands-on experience in finding the programs that I wanted to be a part of. For example, I worked for Chimes, Calvin’s student newspaper, for a long time, and I did some writing for Calvin’s student activities office (SAO). By writing for them, I could get into a lot of areas that I wanted to continue exploring.
There are also a lot of people that really take the time to help you along with things, whether it be professors or, for example, my co-workers at Chimes. Everyone wants to help out, and that helps you find out what you’re passionate about and further develop that.
Once I figured out what I wanted to do, I really loved it, and it’s fun to do everyday. It was a long process, but it ended up working out really well.