Samuel Hislop: alumnus, writer, and lifelong learner

Hailey (Rich) Westenskow, writer

A senior writer and editor at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day-Saints who writes, edits and publishes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' offical newsroom, its website, the World Report that publishes every six months, plus calls Utah State University JCOM his alma mater. He credits the university for giving him the skills to go after his passion: writing.

Samuel Hislop admits for some people, writing at that volume and frequency would be daunting - for him, it’s what he loves.

“That’s something I enjoy most and I’m glad I can do every day.” He has a wide variety of writing duties from articles to speeches to announcements. The other aspect he enjoys about his position is the opportunity to attend events and meet people from different faiths around the world. Hislop shared that in 2012 when Mitt Romney was running for president of the United States, he had the opportunity to host journalists from Russia, Italy and Japan. “Those have been my most cherished experiences, just learning about other faiths.”

Many of Hislop’s fondest memories from his time at Utah State revolve around writing. “I remember often leaving the Utah Statesman office at 2 a.m., and having a nice peaceful walk home in the dark, with the satisfaction of putting together another issue. "He remembered smiling and laughing. “I enjoyed that looking back on it, probably not as much in the moment.”

He continued to reflect on the wonderful professors and advisers in the JCOM department that helped kickstart his career. At the time he worked at the Statesman, Jay Wamsley was the student advisor. “He taught the very first course I took at USU - beginning news writing. I’ve been thinking a lot about how everything he taught us in that class I now do every day.” Two of the other heavily influential courses on his career today were magazine journalism and media law.

In consideration of students today, Hislop recalled his experiences from Utah State that prepared him for applying, interviewing and working in the position he is now. “One of the things that surprised me while I was at Utah State was how few of the students actually took advantage of writing for the Statesman.”

He took every chance he could to write while he was in school. Whether it was for the Statesman, for the Herald Journal or random entities on campus. He said “I was getting anything I could. Every little bit is helpful. If you want to write, you need to write.”

A second piece of advice Hislop gives is to embrace being a lifelong learner and making it a part of your everyday life. “I’ve tried to conscientiously do something every year that helps me gain or sharpen a writing or editing skill,” he said. He compared this to sports- another passion of his.

Sports experts often emphasize the “fundamentals”- the simple things one needs to learn to do reflexively. One would assume those are things that would be learned early on, then just used. Hislop cautions, “As you progress, the importance of fundamentals becomes more important, not less.”

Hislop is a great example of writing, learning and growing, who we can all hope to become more like. See more of his work at: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-hislop-619423203/

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/inspiration/we-arent-gods-only-people?lang=eng