Welcome back to Statesboro, Eagle Nation. Judging from the crowd at Wal-Mart on Sunday evening, I trust mostly everyone made it back to town just in time to fight for school supplies.

I hope everyone enjoyed their breaks and had a good start to their new year, even though many of us are already breaking this year’s round of resolutions.

Honestly, I’m quite tired of the “new year, new me” social media posts that have been popping up on an alarmingly regular basis, however, I do want to let the community know about some severe changes in Student Media this semester.

At the end of last January, Student Media’s director left Georgia Southern for another opportunity. Associate Dean of Students Kerry Greenstein stepped right in to serve as an interim director, expecting to be around for five months or so.

He was with us for almost a full year as the Dean of Students office completed two searches for a new director of our department. The second search thankfully proved successful, and I am proud to say that we have a fantastic new director.

David Simpson has worked at various big-name news outlets like CNN and the Associated Press. He also served as an advisor to the student media of Georgia Perimeter College for about three years.

He has some big ideas and has already encouraged my staff to think as big and bold as it possibly can in regards to what we plan to do this semester.

We are all extremely excited to work with David this semester and are expecting big things for the organization as a whole and would like you to join us.

We have several opportunities in Student Media for acquiring real job experience for anyone interested in reporting, ad sales and marketing, photography, video production, graphic design or web development. Anyone in any major is welcome to tryout and apply.

Tryouts for The George-Anne training program will begin next Tuesday and continue through Thursday. There will be various times for those interested in reporting to try out.

If you don’t want to join the organization, there are other ways you can take part. If you see something in The George-Anne you don’t like or something you’d like to see more of, don’t hesitate to let us know. We want to know what our audience likes and dislikes so we can better serve as a voice for the students.

Don’t forget to check our website, thegeorgeanne.com, and our Facebook and Twitter accounts for more news and updates throughout the week.

Here’s to a great semester, Eagles.