Fear not, a leader for Pillar has emerged

Posted by admin on Oct 7, 2009 in News | 1 comment

At the beginning of the year, Pillar Yearbook was in danger of being folded indefinitely. After the TWUSA council considered a motion to suspend the yearbook, many students voiced their desire to have a yearbook at the end of the year. Samantha Lowe stepped up to become the Editor-In-Chief for the yearbook after many months of TWUSA searching for one.

Leeann Tolentino: Tell me a bit about yourself.i
Samantha Lowe: My major is Honours International Studies (Development Stream). I attended the Laurentian Leadership Center last semester and officially became a ‘super senior’ this semester – I had to take an extra semester to finish my thesis (on the cyclical nature of nationalism and gender in Palestine).

LT: What made you want to become the Editor-in-Chief for Pillar Yearbook?
SL: I’ve been involved with student leadership every year that I have been at Trinity, except for my first. My second year I was HSS rep for TWUSA, and the next year I was the Senior Visual Editor for Mars’ Hill. I believe that student media is integral to the health of any campus and a yearbook is no different than a paper in that regard – a newspaper relates to the student body in the here and now while a yearbook is about longevity. Pillar is a snapshot, both literal and figurative, of a year of a student’s life. When I heard that Pillar might not happen due to the lack of an editor, I felt that my skills were adequate. I was honoured to be continually encouraged by fellow students and friends to apply, and again honoured to be hired.

LT: Do you have any other experience with this kind of work?
SL: Yes. I have a background in fine arts – I left home two years early to attend a fine arts high school in Ft. Langley. I have continued taking art classes throughout my university career and switched to graphic design when I was hired for Mars’ Hill. I continued honing my skills by designing for a non-profit over the summer and also during my internship at the LLC for the NGO I was interning with. I am currently the student designer for Trinity Western’s own University Communications Department.

LT: What kind of ideas do you plan to bring into Pillar?
SL: Funny enough, although my background is in a very loose, freehand form of fine art, my tendency in graphic design is towards clean lines and bold type. Typography will sustain the yearbook this year, along with a very clean palette, and a reliance on photography.

LT: Since Pillar has been saved, what do you hope to accomplish out of this?
SL: Creating a yearbook that the student body will be proud to show off is not the only thing on my mind. There is an obvious lack of continuity between Pillar years – as evidenced by the difficulty of finding an EIC this year. The small design community I once knew has all graduated, and I believe that it is my duty to put safeguards in place to ensure this does not happen again. Training and supporting potential editors and creating a framework for this to happen annually are my main goals.

LT: What effect do you think this would have on campus community?
SL: I think Pillar already had an effect on the community – the amount of students who came out to defend the yearbook was incredibly encouraging.