By Graham Wood, class of 2024
Last Saturday night saw writing and literary groups come together and learn more about one another at the “LaunchPad,” organized byThe LilyPad, DKU’s premier independent student-run newspaper and magazine and sponsored by the Humanities Research Center (HRC).
The event aimed to bring campus writing and literary groups on together to foster collaboration and draw inspiration from one another. Students were given an opportunity to hear from a range of groups all seeking to share ideas, encourage critical thinking, and help students grow.
Held at the HRC’s new HUM Space in the Academic Building, around 40 students came together for some food and networking before listening to speakers from various DKU writing and literary organizations.
Editor-In-Chief Graham Wood and Deputy Editor-In-Chief Maya Peak of The LilyPad kicked off the event with a welcoming and update on the student newspaper before handing off the podium to Sebastian Portilla, The LilyPad’s News Editor.
Professors Austin Woerner, John Noonan and Sophia Zhou followed with a presentation on Intersections, a long-standing bilingual magazine founded by Woerner when he taught at DKU years ago.
Professor John Noonan spoke about the writing and journalism classes he teaches at DKU, which have helped train some students writing for The LilyPad currently. Professor Zhou concluded with an emphasis on international students’ opportunity to write in Mandarin for the magazine.
Superdeep, represented by Professor Nathan Hauthaler and students Felipe Silvestri and Philip Yanakiev, came next and covered a range of projects run by the HRC lab.
Amanda Niza-Golzalez and Cody Schmidt, representing South-North Scholars, talked next about the Nexus Global South Journal and their coming second issue.
DKU Student Broadcasting, represented by student Michelle Tom came next, where Tom described the club’s works in video journalism, the experience of club members and avenues of future growth for journalism at DKU.
Finally, Sydney Brown represented the Poetry Club, encouraging students to break into writing poetry and Brown’s own experience with the creative process of poetry writing.
The LilyPad concluded the event with highlighting open positions on the editorial board, with staff writers and the creative team. Before concluding the event, the theme of the next issue of The LilyPad Magazine was announced, called “community.”
