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Fitgerald

CSU alumnus keeps the “buzz” going

By Suzie Kubiak

Steve FitzGerald, a 1988 Cleveland State University graduate who majored in Communication, believes more in following dreams than dollar signs when choosing a life path.
In 2000, FitzGerald founded the lakewoodbuzz.com, a Web site for the city of Lakewood that covers everything about Lakewood.
This can include community relations to a calendar of events for the city and an online forum where residents can share resources, complaints and concerns about the city.
FitzGerald got his start working for Sherwin Williams Co. as a manager of corporate records. While working there, he realized his current job did not match his personal interests.
Instead of serving public interest and utilizing his writing and journalistic talents, FitzGerald’s job focused more on budgets and bottom lines.
Feeling unfulfilled at his current job, FitzGerald quit the job to pursue his writing interests and became the director of public relations and editor with the International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Although he took a substantial pay cut, FitzGerald enjoyed his job, where his interests and skills could be utilized.
Next FitzGerald began working in community relations, which was an early interest.
Disillusioned by the compromises of journalistic standards in that job, FitzGerald again evaluated his goals.
And that led to lakewoodbuzz.com.
A Lakewood resident for 25 years, FitzGerald wondered why the city did not have its own Web site, and decided to begin his own as an experiment.
At the beginning the Web site focused on community relations, but as time went on, new features were added ­-- a calendar of area events and then an online forum.
The goal of lakewoodbuzz.com, says FitzGerald, is to focus on Lakewood residents’ needs.
The success of lakewoodbuzz.com, which began on its fourth year of existence in March, was not achieved without difficulties.
As FitzGerald launched his Web site, the dot com bubble was bursting, and he had difficulty getting advertisers.
Despite the challenges, FitzGerald has had a rewarding time operating his Web site.
“One of the most rewarding things about the Web site is getting an unsolicited thank you,” he said. “Often, I wonder if anyone is picking up any information from my site, but when I get a thank you for the information available through the Web site, it provides a great deal of encouragement.”
He’s the former board president of Cornucopia/Nature’s Bin in Lakewood and Cleveland Heights, an organization serving individuals with disabilities, and also served on t he steering committee for Lakewood Taxpayers for Responsible Schools.
He was a contributing editor for Defense and Diplomacy’s Foreign Trade magazine. FitzGerald is a member of the Lakewood Alive Advisory Board, and also serves as a chapter officer of the Society of Professional Journalists. He advises Quill, SPJ’s national magazine.
Through his varied work experiences, FitzGerald has followed his dreams and suggests others to do likewise.
He recommends students searching for a career path to figure out what it is they have a passion for or what they find personally satisfying, and then make a career out of it.
FitzGerald said there is increasing pressure for people to choose a job where money is placed above meaning, but after his many years of experience, FitzGerald says “I would take meaning over money any day.”

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