March is Women’s History Month and it reminds me of my own long journey.  I started college at Wayne State University in Detroit in the mid-60s and joined the campus paper when a friend from Cass Tech High School asked me to join her in checking out WSU’s student newspaper.  I was fascinated first by the photography department and worked with David Welsh – now a long-time friend.   I spent a year as a photographer before I grew more interested in being a reporter.

I had assumed that by junior year I would be doing student teaching for a career in education.  However, when I finally took my first education class, I knew that I wanted to be a journalist, not a teacher.  Luckily I had met another student determined to be a journalist, my friend Peggy Fisk.  She urged me to work with her in the Daily Collegian’s editorial department.  It gave me the courage to later interview for a local newspaper, the Macomb Daily, where I landed a job on the women’s page.  I gradually moved over to the general news pages.  It’s hard to believe there was a time that women were confined to one category – women’s news.

And I’m glad I had support on my journey, which included newspapers, publishing and publicity.  I eventually also got a graduate degree in Communications Management from USC when I moved to California with my husband Tim Robinson.  Yes, we had to push the boundaries, but women today keep breaking barriers, including the first woman vice president.  Onwards!