Triangle names LeBow student as Editor-in-Chief | The Triangle

Triangle names LeBow student as Editor-in-Chief

Sandra Petri, a pre-junior studying international business, was selected to be the editor-in-chief of The Triangle for the fall 2013 and winter 2014 terms.

Petri stated that she has three main goals as editor-in-chief: to increase visibility of the student paper, to create a mobile application for The Triangle, and to build interactions with readers.

“Students can get all of the right answers when they want to know what’s going on,” she said. “We have the facts and we also have the student perspective, and those two things make us valuable to the community.”

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Petri joined The Triangle on the first day of her freshman year as a news writer.

“I came to the first staff meeting on the first day of school, and I was absolutely convinced,” she said. “I was impressed by everybody and the fact that a group of students manage to publish a paper every week. I knew it would be a good way for me to build my resume and get leadership experience and just be in tune all the time with what was going on at Drexel, and that’s really what I wanted.”

Petri worked as a news writer for six months and was promoted to the assistant news editor position by the spring of her freshman year. By the fall of her sophomore year, she had been selected as the news editor at The Triangle. Citing her drive and ability to lead, Petri was also selected to join The Triangle’s Editorial Board in winter 2013.

Anne Most, a senior communication major and former editor-in-chief of The Triangle, wrote in an email, “From the day I met Sandra, I knew she would do great things for The Triangle. There was not a doubt in my mind. She is as smart as a whip, always positive and a joy to be around. I am confident that Sandra is the perfect fit to lead The Triangle, and I wish her good luck.”

In addition to the print version and the Web version of The Triangle, Petri is also working to recruit application designers to create a mobile app to view The Triangle. “I just think if you are going to go to the next level technologically, you need to have an app,” she said.

In addition to working at The Triangle, Petri is also part of the Drexel Newman ministry, the Catholic student organization on campus. Last spring, Petri joined a group led by Drexel Newman to help repair houses in Kentucky on an alternative spring break trip. She also volunteers for an organization called Back on My Feet, a group that uses running to motivate residents of homeless shelters to work out of poverty and prove to them that they are in control of their lives.

Petri is an international area studies minor and is planning to study abroad in fall 2014. She is from Mount Royal, N.J., and spends her free time in the spring coaching a little league softball team in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood.

Petri also has family ties to other journalists. Her grandfather worked at her hometown’s newspaper for years, and her uncle, who studied at Drexel in the 1970s, wrote for The Triangle as an undergrad. “I kind of have this journalistic legacy that I’m following,” she said.

When Petri started college, she knew that she wanted to be engaged in the Drexel community as much as possible.

“I’m so happy that I’m [at Drexel]. I genuinely believe that this is a good school. I genuinely believe that the professors and the administration are trying to do what’s best for the students, and nobody on the administration likes to be stagnant. They’re all like, ‘How can we be better? How can we be bigger?’ and I love that, and I love that I get to see it firsthand and talk to people about it.”

Petri said she hopes that by reading the paper, people will become more in tune and engaged with the Drexel community, learning about new organizations and activities to join..

“Stuff that we get to report on, that’s integral to our lives as Drexel students now, will be foreign to Drexel students later. But we get to record it, and people will know that they’re getting the real story from us and it’s not fluffed up. We include the good stuff and the bad stuff, and I think that’s really important,” she concluded.