Katarina Marceta, the Editor-in-Chief of ACP-Erie’s Knight Times student-led newspaper, recently took her writing to the national stage! Publishers of The American Srbobran, the longest-running, continually published Serbian newspaper in the world, selected one of her articles to gloss the front page. Volume 16,862 of The American Srbobran, published on Wesdnesday, September 4th, featured the article.

The American Srbobran has had newspapers in circulation since January 18th, 1906. It spotlights current events and news that remind Serbians currently living in the United States of their homeland. In particular, Katarina’s article highlighted one of her long-time friends, Adriana Kangrga, who spent the summer performing traditional Serbian dances across southeastern Europe. To learn more about Katarina’s experience being published in a national newspaper, I asked her a few questions.

Q1: What was the article about that The American Srbobran selected to publish?

A1: The article was about my friend Adriana who went on a group trip with her “folklor” dance group to a multitude of countries in the Balkans for several dance events. Adriana and I have both grown up in Serbian households. We’ve known each other since we were little. We’ve both been to Serbia before to see family, and we both spent this summer in the Balkans. The opportunity to write about Adriana’s experiences this summer came up when school started, and I was so excited to share her experience!

Q2: Could you describe the newspaper that your article was featured in?

A2: I’ll be honest – I had never heard about the Srbobran before this past August. I knew there was some Serbian-American paper in the U.S., but I had never actually read it before because my parents are not subscribed. The paper itself is a way for the Serbian community in America to connect to their cultural roots. Serbian life in America is very different from life in Serbia, and the paper allows readers to connect to their culture here in the States. 

Q3: How did you feel when you first learned that your article was published?

A3: I was very surprised at first. I had no idea that Adriana’s parents had sent it to the Srbobran, and after the initial shock wore off, I was over the moon. I haven’t told a lot of people because I don’t want to seem arrogant, but having an article published in a national Serbian-American newspaper is a very humbling experience.

Q4: Are you planning on continuing journalism in college?

A4: I’m very interested in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, so I definitely want to major in journalism. However, I’m not exactly sure what I want to write about. For now I’m exploring different fields in journalism to see what I like the most.

Q5:What do you enjoy most about writing? 

A5: Writing has always come naturally to me, but I absolutely adore the feeling that comes with bringing words alive on paper. It’s an indescribable feeling. I’ve always been sort of an introvert yet slightly dramatic person, and writing has given me the freedom to say what I want.

Q6: What is your background in newspaper class?

A6: This is my second year in newspaper and my first year as editor. Last year, I was a staff writer and got to figure out how the class works. More importantly, I had the opportunity to learn how to write newspaper articles, and I learned so many in-depth things about writing that I had never known before. This year I get to assign articles to our staff writers, which is a load of fun, yet a lot more stressful than last year.

Q7: What do you like writing about?

A7: With newspaper articles, I love interviews. Interviews are some of the hardest articles to write because you have to depend on other people, but in the end you get to learn a lot about a person. Also, it encourages you to socialize and meet new people. 

Katarina had the opportunity to bring her words to life on a much wider scale, reaching Serbian audiences across the world. What an exciting accomplishment for our Editor-in-Chief! Take a look at Katarina’s article about Adriana’s summer experience here: https://acpknighttimes.com/6150/entertainment/dancing-through-the-summer-adriana-kangrgas-amazing-opportunity/.