{"id":1815,"date":"2021-09-13T14:46:36","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T20:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2021-09-13T17:10:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T23:10:09","slug":"why-join-in-medias-res-qa-with-2020-2021-editor-in-chief-ana-cristina-camacho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/?p=1815","title":{"rendered":"The in medias res experience: Q&A with 2020\/2021 Editor-in-Chief Ana Cristina Camacho"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As we started the Fall Term, I had the chance to meet with 2020\/2021 in medias res Editor-in-Chief, Ana Cristina Camacho. She kindly joined me for an interview detailing her experience working on the team and what she got out of her volunteer experience! Below is a brief Q&A between us for your reading pleasure.<\/em><\/p>

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Q: Can you explain what your position was on the team and then a little bit of what that entailed?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

A:<\/strong> Okay, so, I was the Editor-in-Chief (EIC), and what the EIC usually does is bring together the different parts that make up the editorial team, coordinate how that comes together to put together the magazine, head meetings, and see how all the different parts work together to result in a magazine that we\u2019re all proud of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Q: What was your favourite part of being on\u00a0the in medias res<\/em> team?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

A:<\/strong> I\u00a0felt like it gave me a point of connection to the university\u00a0and just the university community\u00a0in a year when everything was so distant.\u00a0It was really the only activity I had that felt really grounded and\u00a0it\u00a0felt like we were, you know, students working together and having a good time\u00a0and creating a real community. With publishing, I\u00a0think\u00a0what I always like is just that\u00a0you work on something and really put the effort\u00a0in, and then at the end,\u00a0you see a final product\u00a0and you feel so happy!<\/p>

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Q: What was one challenge that you faced during your tenure as EIC and what did you do to overcome this challenge?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

A:<\/strong> I guess COVID-19 was the most obvious one. The magazine was a print magazine at the start of the year and that wasn\u2019t a possibility anymore, so we had to come up with alternatives. So, just the whole switch to online publishing and just building the infrastructure was really a challenge. Even just building the structure on St. Thomas More College\u2019s website for that to happen and figuring things out like how to reach students online was tricky because everything had always been done in-person for the magazine in the past. Building a sense of community online was also necessary, but it was harder when we were so far apart. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Q: What was one thing that you were proud of accomplishing with\u00a0in medias res<\/em>\u00a0last year?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

A:<\/strong> I was\u00a0really proud\u00a0of\u00a0the number of submissions we received, and\u00a0I think that that had a real impact\u00a0on\u00a0how the issues looked,\u00a0because we could afford to be\u00a0more picky. The level of submissions was also just elevated and more polished. I\u2019ve been\u00a0involved with i<\/em>n medias res<\/em>\u00a0for a couple of years before\u00a0the pandemic, so I really got to see the submissions dwindling and the enthusiasm around the magazine going down, so I was\u00a0really excited\u00a0and proud that by the end of the 2020\/2021 year, there was a lot of interest in the magazine and I hope that\u00a0this year, you\u2019ll be able to build on that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Q: Do you have a\u00a0best memory, or memories,\u00a0of\u00a0being on the team?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

A:<\/strong> A nice\u00a0moment\u00a0of\u00a0the year for me was\u00a0when I went to an online student journal conference\u00a0and I didn\u2019t even consider signing up\u00a0<\/em>in medias res<\/em><\/span> for presenting because I didn\u2019t feel like we were established enough. I was just going to see everyone else\u2019s presentations, but when I got there and saw all the other magazines from across Canada and how they were doing, I realized that our magazine was going through the same struggles and cyclical lulls of interest that all the other journals go through. We were probably older than most of the journals there, so it made me realize that we actually have a magazine that we could be proud of.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Another nice memory with the team was the day before publishing one of the two issues, when everyone was contributing edits on our\u00a0chat\u00a0and I was just trying to make them frantically. There was a real sense of teamwork!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Q: After being on the team, what did you feel were\u00a0some\u00a0skills or benefits that you got\u00a0from working with\u00a0in\u00a0medias\u00a0res<\/em>, and for those looking to apply, what would you say they would be getting out of volunteering with the magazine?<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

A:<\/strong> I think I got to learn a lot more about publishing \u2014 even more than I was expecting to learn.\u00a0It\u2019s so hands-on because it\u2019s a small team and a small magazine, so everyone is involved in\u00a0it\u00a0and you\u00a0have to\u00a0really get in there and do something to make sure everything happens in time. I really learned a lot about publishing and the production process, which I thought I had a pretty good handle on already! It was just\u00a0really exciting\u00a0to be part of\u00a0a production process that depends that much on you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Q: Is there anything else that you wanted to add for our readers or for anyone looking to get more involved with the magazine?<\/strong><\/p>

A:<\/strong> I just really recommend it for people who have an interest in publishing or arts and culture, in general, to give getting involved with in\u00a0medias\u00a0res<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>a shot.\u00a0It\u2019s a good place to learn. I\u00a0love\u00a0campus publications in general, and\u00a0as an English student, I was\u00a0very interested in writing and reading and art in general, but after\u00a0seeing\u00a0artwork from students and\u00a0the general literary and arts community both on campus and in the city, my appreciation of the local arts and culture scene really grew \u2014 that\u2019s something I\u2019m trying to carry on this year beyond my involvement in the magazine, so it was a really important thing in my life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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in medias res is currently recruiting for our 2021\/2022 volunteer editorial board and visual art team. To learn more, click here<\/a>. Applications are open until September 15, 2021. <\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we started the Fall Term, I had the chance to meet with 2020\/2021 in medias res Editor-in-Chief, Ana Cristina Camacho. She kindly joined me for an interview detailing her experience working on the team and what she got out of her volunteer experience! Below is a brief Q&A between us for your reading pleasure. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[213],"class_list":["post-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmcollege.ca\/imr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}