Misogyny. It’s an uphill battle and Maria Marron, Dean of the college of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has won.

On Monday, October 30, Marron came to North Platte High School to speak to the students on the Bulldogger and yearbook staffs. She shared her experiences in journalism and interview tips with the group.

Marron is from midland Ireland, and when she started college, she had no idea what she was going to do after college. By chance, she met with an editor of a big Irish newspaper. She decided she was going to be a journalist.

Marron saw more opportunity in the United States, so she moved so she could go to college here. This is when she started writing articles constantly. She said that the hardest position she ever held was when she was a sports reporter, but that wasn’t originally how she started. The first day with her new job, the assignment editor came in, looked her up and down and told Marron, “We should’ve hired the other guy.” This was because they needed a game of hurling covered, and he didn’t think Marron could write sports. Marron said she was “sassy enough,” and confident in her abilities, and thought she could do anything anyone else could do, so she took the assignment. She called her friend who was an avid hurling fan, and had her explain the entire game to her.

Later, when Marron was department head at Central Michigan University, her friend nominated her for a dean position at North Western University. Marron said she knew she wouldn’t ever accept a female dean, who went to a state university. A few years later, she was nominated for the dean position at UNL, which she didn’t get, but three years after that, she was the Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNL. Marron said the journalism and education careers are two of the hardest but most fulfilling careers anyone could do.