Shiley School of Engineering: Profile: Rosemary Peters

 On her transcript, Rosemary Peters is a senior engineering student at the University of Portland’s Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering. Her days, much like every student at the University of Portland, are meticulously scheduled down to the minute. So what makes this electrical engineering student stand out? Rosemary is busy pursuing another passion completely unrelated to her engineering studies. Rosemary has a love of journalism and her passion comes alive everyday with her dedication to the University of Portland student newspaper The Beacon.

“As I have progressed as a journalist and an engineer, my heart has been pulled in both directions the entire way,” Rosemary said. “I think I am just the luckiest college student in the world because there is probably not a job on campus that could better prepare you for the future and I have had such an incredible electrical engineering staff teaching my classes.”

In the past four years, The Beacon has produced 96 issues. And Rosemary has been there for them all. Starting as a freshman news reporter, she became the design editor her sophomore year. From there, she became editor-in-chief, which she has held the reigns for the past two years. During those years and her growing leadership roles, Rosemary has balanced her time between Shiley Hall and TheBeacon’s newsroom.

“I decided that I was going to apply for the spot on The Beacon even though I was just a freshman,” Rosemary said. “I feel so blessed to have served on The Beacon for as long as I have, we really do something special here.”

Rosemary’s day-to-day schedule requires her to balance her love of engineering and her passion for journalism. Between studying for class like Communication Systems and Electronic Circuits, Rosemary is busy teaching her staff writers AP Style, her section editors how to properly format a newspaper page. And she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I now realize that sometimes life throws you curve balls and you just have to handle them,” Rosemary said. “Giving up is not an option and neither is failure.”

The Beacon has accomplished a lot in the 96 issues that Rosemary has been on staff. From attending conferences to winning awards, Rosemary has risen to the top of the paper, both as a journalist and as an editor.

“I have cultivated many life skills in this position and I have started to learn how to be an effective manager and how to motivate people,” Rosemary said. “I have realized that in order for people to follow me, then I have to be someone worth following.”

In addition to her engineering studies and The Beacon, Rosemary has worked as a grader and lab assistant in the Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering. This past summer, Rosemary worked as an intern for FAST Enterprises, a computer software company in their Springfield, Illinois office.

In the future, Rosemary hopes to become a web technician so she can combine her love of journalism with her engineering background.

Until then, you can find Rosemary splitting her time between her two worlds; engineering and journalism.