Perry Parks knows the importance of a professional adviser.

As a high school freshman, Parks, the first editorial adviser for The State News, discovered what he was most interested in - journalism. The newspaper adviser at Dearborn High School turned him on to the profession.

“I’ve always liked writing since I was little,” Parks said. “But it was the adviser that made me realize that’s what I was really interested in.”

Parks, a 30-year-old Northwestern University graduate, started his first day on the job April 8.

And he’s happy to get back to a college campus.

“I’ve wanted to get back to a college campus since I left mine,” he said. “The trees, the attractive buildings, the people milling about. There is always an energy and sense of activity.”

After working at The Virginian-Pilot for eight years, Parks was one of five finalists selected from a pool of about 60 applicants from around the world. The State News ran a nationwide search for an editorial adviser in December.

Parks’ résumé caught the eye of State News staffers, said journalism senior and Editor in Chief Jeremy W. Steele. His most important qualifications were his experiences working with interns at The Virginian-Pilot and writing for his own college newspaper, The Daily Northwestern.

“He knows where we’re coming from and knows how to deal with this,” Steele said. “For anyone who wants to work here or for the people who are, it’s going to be a much more worthwhile experience.”

And Parks said he looks forward to watching the State News staff improve.

“If everybody who comes here leaves here and can write a clear, succinct, moving sentence when they leave, I think in a large part that’s what success looks like for me,” he said. “I want to help students find out what they want to do and send them on their way.”

Parks lives in Lansing with his wife, Amy, and their 9-month-old daughter, Sophie.

“She’s awfully cute,” he said about his daughter. “Being a dad, it’s something else, when she smiles at you or does some little thing, it’s really amazing watching somebody become self-aware.”

And Parks hopes to watch the about 75-person staff of The State News learn too.

“The staff is a really professional, thoughtful group of students who take their work very seriously,” he said. “Every newspaper needs to work on its writing. It’s tough for students because they don’t have a lot of experience.”

Steele said Parks will be an important asset to the staff.

“He’s not there to tell us what to do, he’s not there to have control over the newspaper, he’s not there to punish us for doing things wrong,” he said. “He’s there as a resource for us. If there is a problem with something we write, it’s still the student editors who deal with all those issues.”

Journalism junior and State News reporter Camille Spencer was one of three staff members whose work was critiqued by the finalist candidates.

“I liked his approach, he seemed like he would be easygoing and wouldn’t be overbearing,” she said. “It seemed like he would allow us to have freedom on what we want to write about.”

State News General Manager Marty Sprigg said choosing from the finalists was a difficult job. The advertisements in the newspapers read that The State News was searching for the “miracle candidate.”

“I believe in Perry we have found it,” she said. “He’s the person who has the balance between the daily news experience, the mentoring and the ability to guide.

“He had the qualities that we were looking for. With Perry being here, we’re going to see the writing of The State News go to the next level.”