On the way to St. Joseph last week, a colleague from Alabama pointed out that there were a lot of evergreen trees, admiring the many blue spruce along the highway.

Having lived in southwest Michigan my entire life, I rarely acknowledge the amount of blue spruce trees, nor stop to think about how pretty they are. I had not realized that these trees are special to our region. They are familiar — as engrained into my image of my hometown region as the sky and roads around them.

This simple observation reminded me the value of an outsider looking in.

In the last month, Leader Publications has welcomed two “outsiders” to its news team.

Beau Brockett reports primarily for the Niles Daily Star, and Hannah Holliday reports primarily for the Dowagiac Daily News.

Both Beau and Hannah are recent college graduates — Beau from Albion College and Hannah from Michigan State University. Both grew up on the east side of the state, and, after graduating, took advantage of opportunities available at our operation and chose Niles as the town they would next lay their roots. For each, their first day of work was one of the first days they had lived in these communities.

You may be thinking, “would it not be easier to hire folks from this area to report on this area?” And you’re probably right. People familiar with southwest Michigan will be much more comfortable finding their way around town, networking with individuals they have known for a long time and sharing information with the institutional knowledge of someone with deep roots in their community.

However, as my colleague reminded me, although there is comfort in the familiar, unfamiliarity breeds curiosity.

Imagine having moved to a new community. You do not yet know where the closest grocery store is, which restaurant has the best takeout or where do get your car serviced, but your livelihood depends on being able to inform your new neighbors.

Naturally, you are going to ask a lot of questions. You are likely to do a lot of research. In that process, you will more than likely uncover facts about your surroundings that folks who have spent most of their lives where you are may not know.

As Beau and Hannah become acquainted with southwest Michigan, they are viewing every story they tackle with fresh eyes — no biases about folks they have known for years, no memories of how things had been done in the past. They have the ability to plainly and simply be flies on the wall, reporting what they see and what is said.

Of course there is value in institutional knowledge, which is why leaders like myself and Scott Novak, who have lived in southwest Michigan our entire lives, and Sarah Culton, who has lived in Niles and reported in Cass County for more than two years, are here to fill in the gaps.

We are fortunate to have these innately curious individuals, both with a passion to report the news, tell stories and inform the people of southwest Michigan.

As Hannah and Beau become acclimated in their new roles, we look forward to their fresh perspective on our communities — their ability to admire the cypress, so to speak.