Journalism is in a fragile state — especially in the age of fake news.

As supporters of the First Amendment and seekers of the truth, we strive for accuracy and fairness in all our reporting. We want to take our love of journalism to another level.

This year, we’ve created the Jetstream Team, which consists of four experienced reporters and staff members who are dedicated to in-depth and investigative reporting on Simpson College-related subjects.

We’re not just journalists; we’re students as well. But we have the opportunity – and responsibility – to hold those in authority accountable, to inform the public and to provide answers to complex issues facing our community.

You may not like what we report, but as syndicated columnist Ben Shapiro put it bluntly: “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

Our goal is to go beyond the surface when reporting stories that affect the local community. We hope you enjoy reading our stories, and we hope they instigate change wherever necessary.

Our nation elected a leader who constantly berates the media, the very institute that put him in power. We’ve already seen how executive orders affect Simpson College students, and we’ve seen many instances in which free speech is abused, or conversely, not exercised enough.

Journalism is an important part of society, but nowadays, its purpose has been poorly understood. To be clear, we are not seeking juicy headlines, clickbait material or middle school gossip. We want the facts.

Our first article, “After ‘silent struggle,’ family clings to renewed hope,” profiled a former high school athlete and his struggle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, before he took his own life.

The next piece, which will be published next week, focuses on private institutions’ coping mechanisms with declining enrollment.

We’re doing homework for the whole campus, and we’re open to receiving feedback so that we can improve.

If you have any tips or questions, please contact these representatives of Jetstream:

Alex Kirkpatrick, Jetstream Editor
[email protected]

Alex Kirkpatrick is a senior at Simpson College and is majoring in multimedia journalism and minoring in French. He is from Indianola, Iowa. Alex has been involved with The Simpsonian for three years, and has competed on the speech and debate team. He teaches tumbling at the Indianola Tumbling Center. Alex is also a digital editor for Des Moines television station KCCI. In his spare time, Alex likes to read, discover new music and watch “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Emily Carey, Digital Media Manager
[email protected]

Emily Carey is a junior at Simpson College and is double majoring in theatre arts and multimedia journalism. She is from Boone, Iowa. Emily has been involved with The Simpsonian for two years and has acted, stage managed, and props designed for Theatre Simpson. Emily is also a member of the Simpson improv troupe “On The House” and a cast member for Alpha Psi Omega. She is currently the Marketing UGA for the theatre department. In her spare time, Emily likes to pet dogs, watch true crime documentaries and obsess over musicals.

Randy Paulson, Senior Staff Reporter
[email protected]

Randy Paulson is a junior majoring in multimedia journalism and minoring in Spanish. He is from Grinnell, Iowa. At Simpson, he is a Culver Fellow, and has also been involved with Simpson Student Media, The Simpson Acorn (a satirical publication), Speech and Debate, and Simpson Feminists. In what little spare time he has, Randy likes hanging out with friends, listening to music and watching late-night comedy talk shows.

Austin Hronich, Director of Photography
[email protected]

Austin Hronich is a junior at Simpson College and is majoring in sports communication. He is from West Des Moines, Iowa. Austin has been involved with The Simpsonian for two years and currently plays football. He works at Des Moines Golf and Country Club. In his free time, Austin likes to play golf and fish.