Reflections on a decade of student journalism

The Knightly News is 10 years old this month

By Michael Lear-Olimpi, Paul Miller and Bret Saveleski

The Knightly News Media Club is celebrating 10 years of operation.

From its beginning, in the summer of 2015, the club has been considered a leading campus club and an example of what dedicated students can accomplish.

The club was launched in that hot summer because of student interest in beginning a campus news organization, an interest that had been growing and that Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi, then program director of the communications-degrees program, had tried for a couple of years to satisfy. The effort included, prior to the club’s formation, a contest to name the to-be-formed student news blog.

For a variety of reasons, the effort was unsuccessful, which fueled interest in forming a media club, something at Central Penn with a rich history in previous decades.

“Those were tough times in forming a media club,” Lear-Olimpi said of 2014 and 2015, when he, and then with adjunct professor of communications Paul Miller, worked to establish a media club on campus. “We had students interested in a media club, but they all wanted to do—as did Paul and I—more than what the average college club does. We wanted to be a bona fide news outlet. We also initially had a problem hitting the required number of students for a formally chartered club, which I believe at that time was 10, because interest was there, but our degrees aren’t in journalism—they’re an associate degree in communications and a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications, but those professionals use journalism skills. And it was summer, so we didn’t have the typical number of students on campus.”

After numerous interchanges with the college administration and the Student Government Association, Lear-Olimpi, Miller and a handful of communications students succeeded in forming a club. The marketing department set up a WordPress site for the club’s news and feature stories.

The debut post and efforts to get on the air

The Knightly News’ first post came on Aug.7, 2015. The post introduced readers to the club.

Written by Miller, that post reads, “Our goal is to foster the opportunity for our students to receive hands-on training in news writing, photography, videography, and eventually broadcasting, while covering those events on and off-campus that impact our student body, faculty, and staff.”

Lear-Olimpi and Christine Fusselman, who helped found the club and helped fashion, with other students, the club’s first bylaws during the first official meeting on Aug. 4, made Facebook posts to introduce The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College.

“That’s when those tough times became fun and rewarding times,” Lear-Olimpi said.

Even as the effort to bring The Knightly News blog into the world progressed, Lear-Olimpi and Miller had been working to reestablish Central Penn’s radio station, but after costs and anticipated regulatory issues thwarted their attempts, they decided that a media club with a website would better suit the times and the interests of journalism-inclined communications and corporate-communications majors in the Digital Age by featuring podcasts instead of traditional radio programming. Miller, who brought his background in radio to that effort, began seeking funding for podcast equipment.

Meanwhile, he and Lear-Olimpi, with the help of a core group of dedicated Central Penn  students seeking a communications degree, were off and running. The club—officially named The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College, began a slate of official meetings, drew up bylaws, elected officers, created its first story budget, Lear-Olimpi (blog editor, and who has an extensive background in print and online journalism) assigned students stories.

The first Knightly News story appeared on the club’s site on Oct. 22, 2015. It was written by club member and one of the club’s founders, Kimberly Crone: “Campus Players, Youth Ballet to Perform at Fall Harvest.”

The new effort to train Central Penn communications students as journalists and public-relations practitioners with keen writing skills, was breaking news.

We’re still at it

In 2025, the club’s goals remain the same, but the club and its activities have expanded. Since starting with four members, The Knightly News has grown in numbers and added offerings to include podcasts, sports home-game livestreams and sponsoring quarterly movie showings of the CPC Film Series, in the Capital Blue Cross Theatre, on campus. Most important, the club continues to educate students and to inform readers, viewers and listeners. Another bonus? Helping to build and maintain Central Penn’s profile.

This article is The Knightly News’ 600th, approximately, since the club and the blog began.

“Congratulations to the Media Club on a decade of creativity, storytelling, and student voice at Central Penn College!” President Linda Fidrizzi-Williams said. “As one of our most active and engaging clubs, they have not only showcased the incredible talents of our students, but also built a legacy of collaboration and innovation. Having been part of media activities during my time in college, I know firsthand the impact this experience can have—both in building professional skills and lifelong friendships. Here’s to the next 10 years of inspiring work and powerful stories!”

Current club president, corporate communications major Noah Lopez, shared his thoughts on the club to which he has belonged since arriving at Central Penn.

“The Knightly News Media Club: Man is there so much I could say about it,” Lopez said. “The club has left a special place in my heart and is one of the main reasons I started to enjoy my overall college experience so early on. From the moment I joined in Fall 2023 until now, the club has allowed me to hone my skills not only in writing but also in other creative areas like graphic design, photography, and live streaming. The club has also given me the chance to form friendships with my fellow communications majors and other like-minded individuals who all share the same goal: the spread of information.”

The club has also had an impact on its advisers.

“Being a part of The Knightly News has literally changed my life,” Miller said. “When I started here at Central Penn College, I was young and inexperienced, trying to find my way. But The Knightly News gave me purpose. It allowed me to pursue passions of mine like sports broadcasting and starting a podcast. It allowed me to work closely with sharing important and influential films with the CPC Film Series. And, most importantly, I got to become a mentor to many, many amazing students over the years. Without the Knightly News, I wouldn’t be Dr. Paul Miller.”

Miller earned his doctorate in communication media and instructional technology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania late last year.

Lear-Olimpi, editor of The Knightly News blog, who oversees text-story assignments and photography for them, offers club members his experience while working with them, but his involvement is a major source of fulfillment for him.

“Working with our young reporters keeps me sharp as an editor, and I learn a lot from them—from the stories they write and often edit with them, and about perspective,” he said. “I receive immediate satisfaction from students when I see their pleasure and pride at seeing their first bylined story published and then distributed on social media, and I’m pleased to know they’re satisfied and their confidence and skills are bolstered as they continue to produce stories that inform their community. It’s electric.”

Back to the past, and then to now

The club’s SGA funding was insufficient to buy podcasting equipment, and so its members ran fundraisers to buy it. The advisers also sought space for a podcast studio. Lear-Olimpi and Miller had abandoned the radio-station idea in favor of the well established and fast-growing podcast medium. Club members collected enough money to buy podcasting equipment, and they then, under Miller’s direction and with him as show host, made the podcasts where they could until a dedicated space was secured.

The Knightly News Podcast debuted on Feb. 2, 2016. The episode featured Career Services Director Steve Hassinger, who would become a regular guest, and Miller, who also produced the casts. Nasir Harris, a member of the club’s podcast committee, was also part of that first cast, and many others. Podcast No. 215 was posted on Aug. 12—with Hassinger as guest.

Harris, a driving force with Miller in Knightly News podcasts and who had a passion for radio that he exercised at Shippensburg University before enrolling at Central Penn and was a loved and outgoing person on campus, died unexpectedly after a brief illness a little more than a year later. He was inducted into The Knightly News Media Club Hall of Fame—yes, the club has a hall of fame that honors club members who made outstanding contributions to the club and the college–in 2021. The club’s studio, by that year fully equipped and in the college’s historic Boyer House, was named The Nasir Harris Podcast Studio in Nasir’s honor. It has shifted location on campus over the years and is now housed in Bollinger Hall.

The club has always had roots in sports. The oldest such story available through Web archives (The Knightly News site was trashed in a hacking in the spring of 2021) is a recap of the college men’s soccer team’s second season, in the fall of 2015. The men’s team went 1-9 that year. In 2024, the team reached new heights to become an Eastern States Athletic Conference champion and United States Collegiate Athletic Association national championship runner-up.

A winning enterprise

The Knightly News is not only recognized on campus (it was named club of the year this year, in 2023 and in 2018, and its faculty advisers of the year in 2017 and this year), but in journalism–it is a six-time winner of state journalism awards. The club won those awards between 2019 and 2023 from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, in its Keystone Student Journalism Awards contests, for colleges and universities with fewer than 10,000 students. Enrollment at Central Penn is less than 1,000.

In 2023, former Knightly News President Dylan Bowman won first prize for a photograph during the 2022 baseball season, and in 2024 won second place—both firsts for the club.

Before that, in 2020, Leslie Heimbaugh won a PNA award for a movie review, and she and Miller won an honorable mention award from PNA for a podcast series called “Knights at the Movies,” in which the two film buffs discussed movies.

The club won an honorable mention in 2022 for a different angle on campus diversity with a series of stories called “Layers of Community,” produced by club reporters Jenelle Dulack, Ashley Reichard, Alexa Shughart, Olivia Gregory and Jamie Harmon, under Lear-Olimpi’s direction. The series was an effort by The Knightly News, the Central Penn Diversity Committee and the school’s President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. Here is an article from that series and an article on winning the award.

In addition to providing students with an opportunity to learn how to become professional communicators, the club produces a quarterly printed edition of some of the previous term’s Knightly News blog stories so members have a physical example of the club’s work to keep and to present during in-person encounters.

Continuing to serve and to inform

Today, the Knightly News is running as strong as ever. Late last year, the club posted and held a celebration for its 200^th podcast, the film series continues and new students eager to sink their teeth into journalism and provide their campus with a valuable service are signing up each term, and they are continuing The Knightly News tradition of providing Central Penn’s gown and town communities with information to help meet their news needs.

On Oct. 17, at the start of homecoming, four more club alums will be inducted into The Knightly News Hall of Fame during a ceremony in the college’s conference center

Students interested in joining The Knightly News Media Club can contact co-advisers Professor Lear Olimpi at [email protected], or Dr. Paul Miller at [email protected]. The club will hold a general-interest meeting on Aug. 26 from noon–1 p.m. in ATEC 308.

Comment or story idea? Contact [email protected].

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Lear-Olimpi is co-adviser of The Knightly News and this blog’s editor.

Contact him at [email protected]

Miller co-advises The Knightly News. He also hosts and produces the club’s podcast, and oversees the club’s livestreams of Knights home sporting events, for which he trains club members in on-air commentary. Contact him at [email protected].

Saveleski is a Central Penn alum and immediate past co-president of The Knightly News.