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About The Rambler

A Brief History of The Rambler and Its Unique Mission

The Rambler is an independent student journal at Christendom College dedicated to providing a new generation of conservative and Catholic journalists and intellectuals. The excellent and unparalleled liberal arts education at Christendom allows us to train future journalists and intellectuals uniquely equipped to face the challenges of tomorrow. According to The Rambler’s original masthead, it was founded in 2002 in order to provide a forum for Christendom students to express their “political, social, spiritual and academic ideas, opinions, thoughts, and conjectures.”

The Rambler is a publication unlike any other student journal, because we are training the journalists and intellectuals of tomorrow to engage the world and their communities with the unparalleled education they receive from Christendom College. Christendom gives its students an excellent multi-dimensional liberal arts education in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, as well as a mandate to make the right difference in the world with the motto “Restore All Things in Christ.” While the great majority of students at universities today are taught relativism and indoctrinated in ignorance of real and transcendent truth, the small campus of 400 students at Christendom College is preparing new leaders equipped with the knowledge to work for the restoration of Western Civilization. We print at least 450 copies of our issues to cover all the students, faculty, and staff of the college. Writers for The Rambler are crusaders against intellectual boredom on campus by keeping the student body engaged with the issues involving their campus, outside communities, the world at large, different movements, and ideas. The Rambler provides an excellent training ground for these new leaders to hone their skills and discover how they can make that positive difference through media.

In the Spring of 2006, then-junior John Jalsevac ’08, took the reigns of The Rambler as editor-in-chief in order to revive what had unfortunately become a flagging project largely ignored by the campus populace. From a journal with a staff of only three or four, The Rambler’s staff under Jalsevac’s leadership quickly burgeoned into an effective hierarchical structure of editors, assistant editors, section editors, and writers. The Rambler went through a complete visual revamp from a 4-8 page, half-size publication printed on a laser jet printer and stapled by hand, into a 16-page, full-size, magazine-style weekly, printed on high-quality paper. The first edition of this newly redesigned Rambler was entitled The Phoenix Edition, and saw a total of 8 issues printed, and impressed the college with its professional spirit and ambition.

In the summer of 2006, The Rambler marked a milestone and vastly expanded its potential after it applied to and was accepted into the Collegiate Network (CN), a large nation-wide network of conservative collegiate papers and journals. The Network put The Rambler’s staff in contact with professional journalists willing to help out in any way possible, and hundreds of other conservative student journalists across the United States. Every year The Rambler’s editor-in-chief, and one other junior staff member attend the CN’s all-expenses-paid annual editors conference at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort in Phoenix Arizona to learn how to improve the paper, which serves as a training ground for future Catholic leaders in media.

The Rambler’s second major transition began in Fall 2007, when John Jalsevac stepped down as editor-in-chief and handed responsibility for The Rambler and the success of its mission to current editor-in-chief Peter J. Smith ’09, who had returned from a year-long sabbatical from his undergraduate studies at Christendom College.

The Rambler has continued to undergo changes in its design and its content, always seeking to pursue the highest level of professionalism possible for an independent student-run journal.



The Rambler’s Staff:


    Managing Editor:
  • James Tillman

    Layout/Assistant Editor:
  • Emma Boyle

    Faculty Advisor:
  • Dr. Patrick Keats

    Copy Editors:
  • Sarah Berger
  • Andrea Cook
  • Meredith Wise




Copyright 2007 therambleronline.com