On October 6, 2026 students and aspiring reporters of Stockton University gathered into the Galloway Campus Center Meeting Room this to meet the new president of the first ever meeting of the Society of Professional Journalist (SPJ). This organization marks one of America’s oldest broad-based community organizations, which opened in 1909 formerly as Sigma Delta Chi and later renamed to make itself.

Now in the form of a new journalist club on campus grounds with fresh president of the club Michael DiPiazza and public relations officer Emma Waterson, along with their faculty advisor Assistant Professor of Digital Journalism and Communication Huixin Deng, they welcomed new members to join them in being part of the nation’s largest networks of student journalist portfolios.

The main goal of SPJ’s Stockton club according to their president is to prepare their clubmates to be confident interviewers, writers, editors, photographers, reporters, social media managers and professionals in the field, while having opportunities to brainstorm ideas and give students creative liberty over their work and have a professional portfolio for networking practices.

“This is the reason this club was made, it’s to help people get jobs, because SPJ is a national thing, we just made it official at Stockton,” Mr DiPiazza explained as he gave an improv example of how students might network utilizing the society’s notoriety, “You send that to your employer, and you’re set.”

The club as of its first meeting had over 30 students in total signing in to be participants. Members of the club are asked to come up with one article or blog a month to publish for their soon to be released SPJ official webpage for Stockton’s chapter and their official Instagram account about anything that interests them, supporting creative freedom and self-expression under the First Amendment so long as it remains respectful and protects student welfare.

“It does have to be obviously appropriate,” Public Relations officer and social media manager of SPJ Emma Waterson mentioned, “because we’re upholding the Stockton name, as well as the other people in our club, and we don’t want to make them look bad. If you don’t know what’s appropriate or not, just ask! We’ll brainstorm ideas to work together and create content, but you will also work on your own and also at your own pace. Regular posts and videos can be about anything informational, promotional, or anything about yourself… Journalism is about capturing and documenting things whether on paper or digitally.”

Some examples the duo gave of other acceptable posts for their blogs and publishing boards include research papers, surveys, day-in-the-life reels, photography, video pieces and interviews among many others where they encourage brainstorming for these monthly submissions for themes and important topics as a team.

“Sports, fall, Halloween, Stockton, small businesses, non-profit organizations, your family, your goldfish, you can do a piece about that if you really want to,” DiPiazza said. The leaders of the club meeting also discussed among the group about their hopes to also have elective topics, such as giving assignments for the student journalists to cover major events occurring around Stockton’s area, including events, news, and festivities in Smithville or coverage on Stockton University’s Board of Trustees.

“Everyone will take part in every aspect… when it comes to writing pieces or if you’re on camera for Instagram, whether taking pictures/videos of the events, or helping out a fellow club member with their projects, no matter what it is everyone will be involved. You won’t be forced to do something you don’t want to do.” President DiPiazza opened the address on the mechanics and atmosphere of the club and how he hopes members can find ways to operate in SPJ, “You can do anything you want, I won’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. I want you to enjoy coming to the club. If you want to work with social media, do whatever you want to do. …We want you to love what you’re writing.”

If you are interested in becoming a member of Stockton’s Society of Professional Journalists, you can email Micheal DiPiazza and Emma Waterson here: dipiazzm@go.stockton.edu and watersoe@go.stockton.edu

Other staff emails can be found on OspreyHub.

To look at SPJ’s Instagram page and to follow, the link can be found here.

You can also take a look at SPJ’s website here.