By The Lamp
SPRINGFIELD – Two Lamp staffers are moving to Alaska.
Although the Ryan Mazrim and Paige Kirbach know each other from journalism classes at Lincoln Land, the moves are unrelated. When mentioning it before class, they were surprised to learn both planned to move to the land of the midnight sun.
Ryan Mazrim
Mazrim, an award-winning student journalist with The Lamp, only plans to live for three months in Alaska. His longtime girlfriend, Jessica Cody, is taking a job as a traveling nurse in an area north of Anchorage.
After her stint with the agency, they hope to build a home in Colorado.
Mazrim is an Army veteran, serving in Iraq. He was medically discharged.
He said his favorite classes at Lincoln Land were news writing and his English classes with Martha Miller.
Mazrim also enjoyed his work with The Lamp.
“My favorite experience was hearing my name called out for winning an award,” Mazrim said. “That was the most powerful thing because I’d never won anything – academically.”
Mazrim won second place for news column writing and third place for a news photo at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association annual awards in April 2015.
Mazrim plans to take some time off from school and focus on writing, but he said he aspires to work in public relations. He would like to help an organization “make the good things … sound better and make the bad things seem not so bad.”
Mazrim encourages other students to not worry about what other people think, then quoted Garrison Keillor on “The Writer’s Almanac” who was talking about the architect of the Eifel Tower:
“Many people at the time thought the Eiffel tower was very ugly. But they’re all dead, and the tower still stands.”
Paige Kirbach Greene
Kirbach also plans to move to Anchorage to study at the University of Alaska.
She was married over the winter break to her boyfriend, EJ Greene, who will be stationed with the Air Force in Anchorage.
She had already applied to the university, but she then learned Greene would be stationed there.
Kirbach said her favorite class at Lincoln Land was sociology. And her favorite memory was seeing the first article that she wrote as the top story on the front-page of The Lamp.
She wrote about LLCC enrollment.
Kirbach plans to study English and hopes to become a book editor.
Kirbach encourages other students to “Always follow your heart!”