Meet the Board by SHEI Magazine

meet the board Volume 13 | Issue 1

Standford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

CERIDWEN ROBERTS ANA CANO Editor-in-Chief

Publisher

Creative Director

Marketing Director

Operations Director

HANNAH RUFFIN

CHRISTIAN HERNANDEZ

RENATA PEREZ ROSILLO

Print Features Editor

Print Photo Editors

ELENA SHAHEEN KAAVYA CHAVAN

ISIDORA PURRIER

LILLY VYDARENY CHARLES DECOSTER

Managing Digital Editors

Digital Fashion Editor

Digital Features Editor

Print Beauty Editor

XOCHITL SANTANA VEGA MADISON KNOWLTON

JILLIAN VAN STEE

LOLA POST

GRETCHEN BROOKES

Video Editors

Digital Content Editor

Digital Photo Editor

Digital Beauty Editor

LOGAN DILLEY

JANE MAXWELL

BEE WHALEN

GABRIELE SHEPHEARD

Design Editors

Print Fashion Editors

CAROLINE KEGG CORNEILA OVREN

Finance Coordinators

AUBREY HEATON KATIE BURGIN

Public Relations Coordinator

Social Media Coordinators

ALIA GAMEZ

DANICA SCHIRN ANJANI PATEL

Professional Development Lead

Communications Coordinator

TAYLOR DEREY

ELI ORTA

Beauty Team

Gretchen Brookes, Gabriele Shepheard, Yun-Hsi (Megan) Chiang, Ella Graeb, Lexsie Nguyen, Adrienne Feige, Annabelle Chang, Rachel Xu

Design Team

Caroline Kegg, Cornelia Ovren, Ashley Turner, Bailey Ellul, Jaycee Mitchell, Allen Hoover, Charles Decoster, Jasmine Barnes, Riley Kim, Mia Hsu

Fashion Team

Elena Shaheen, Kaavya Chavan, Jillian Van Stee, Mya Weiss, Sally Jang, Reagan Hakala, Rita Hajjar, Lucy Smith, Millie Kocis, Ava Istamboulian, Katie Kim, Eliza Zook, Paige Bishoff, Eva Park, Chloe Johnstin, Amelia Kincaid, Sydney LaDue, Layla Garcia, Siri Beijar, Safaat Hassan, Alexis MacDonald, Sonni Morais, Grace Totten, K’amor Smith, Macea Suárez, Indigo Ogiste, Bee Whalen, Rida Salim

Photography Team

Lilly Vydareny, Charles Decoster, Bee Whalen, Anwita Poluru, Jaden Moxlow, Zhixian Xiong, Paige Bishoff, Flavia Cardoso, Patrick Cardona-Cosner, Deema Aboughanem, Hannah Cherkin, Melissa Castillo-Alejo, Samantha Tandy, Jintong He

table of contents LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 04 MEET THE BOARD 06 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR 35

Digital Content Team

Jane Maxwell, Victoria McCabe, Alexander Pirog, Felicia Wang

Video Team

Logan Dilley, Ammar Yaser, Hannah Cherkin, Skyy Farlow, Felicia Wang

Public Relations Team

Alia Gamez, LeAnh Vong, Sunjana Kaur, Grace Totten, Sophia (Sonni) Morais, Valeria Jurado, Shriya Gangineni, Annelise Gray, Grace Wilson

Communications

Taylor Derey, Eli Orta, Sonia Samuel, Elizabeth Wolf, Karelle Lomami

Social Media Team

Jane Maxwell, Danica Schirn, Anjani Patel, Jaden Johnson, Zoe Feit, Eva Park, Aanya Arora, Reagan Hakala

Finance Team

Katie Burgin, Aubrey Heaton, Megan Dobie, Rida Salim

Features Team

Isidora Purrier, Lola Post, Raymond Zou, Bianca Done, Ana Sharshar, Abby Weinberg, Christopher White, Ada Gong, Zaara Sultan, Alanna Lee, Amrita Arumugam

Two years ago I joined SHEI as a digital fashion team member. I was coming from a background in scenic design, and honestly I knew nothing about fashion. I didn’t know how to sew, or style, or even what was expected in a pitch. However, with time and the community at SHEI, I learned and became a shoot director. My first time altering an outfit was for a SHEI shoot, I learned how to make plated chainmail for another, and I grew to really enjoy ideating and creating shoot pitches. There is something so magical about a team of people coming together to create something. As a shoot director, I would typically arrive at a shoot first, and I would wait nervously, questioning if the shoot would turn out the way we intended. Then the rest of the team would arrive one by one, and we would get into this satisfying trance. The click of the cameras, directing the model, and working with the teams to create shots. Everytime, the nerves would melt away into excitement and concentration. I simply knew that whatever it was I was doing at SHEI, I loved it. The next year, I became the print fashion editor, and I changed my major concentration to include costume design. In just a year, SHEI had changed my perspective on what I could do, and what I loved doing. Being a part of the print team solidified this. The people I got to work with on print became like family to me, we spent weekends and late nights in random shooting locations together to create something we all loved. Now, as Editor-in-Chief, looking back at the version of me who couldn’t sew, and sat there nervously, I can’t help but laugh a little bit at how awkward I must have been. However, I also can’t help but be grateful that two years ago I made the decision to sign-up for something completely out of my depth, and simply go for it. If I hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t be sitting where I am to write my first letter from the editor, I would have made some of my closest friends, and I wouldn’t know that I wanted to do so much more than scenic design. SHEI has done so much for me, and as editor-in-chief I believe that we can do so much for our community too. Fashion is inherently meaningful, if not down right political. SHEI has a unique place and responsibility in the community as an arts organization, and as a publication. To start, this year SHEI has denounced AI as an artistic and brainstorming medium in every use case. SHEI as a publication is proud to be imperfect, human, and made with great amount of care, collaboration, and creativity. “Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.” - David Bowie

CERIDWEN ROBERTS Editor-In-Chief

letter from the editor

here’s this one quote from David Bowie that always seems to come back to me at the right time. At the end of this summer, as I walked into the SHEI office for the first time as Editor-in-Chief, it was stuck in my head. Sitting on the office’s plum purple couch, I got the same feeling I always did before a digital shoot. The anticipation of being on the precipice of creating something. The office was still quiet and still, the seats around me hadn’t been filled yet, and I sat only with the warm light streaming into the room from behind me. Then, just a few days later, the office came to life, buzzing with an entirely new Board, it was then that the quote came back to me. During our meetings, from where I sit as Editor-in-Chief, I can look across the room and see where I sat for my first digital mass meeting two years ago. From where I sit at the end of my journey at SHEI, I can’t help but look back to the start of it.

meet the board

photographer hannah ruffin

graphic designers ceridwen roberts hannah ruffin caroline kegg cornelia ovren

letter from the director

f we stick to the same program and live linearly, we find comfort knowing what to expect next. But at the center of comfort, we can find a stalemate – sometimes, we don’t even realize that the things around us have come to an energetic halt. We may be comfortable – but are we content?

My parents used to reference a book called, “Who Moved My Cheese?” to point out the issues of my dads work-life. He had been working the same job for 14 years, receiving no promotion and constantly finding himself to be a doormat. My mom had enough, to which she proclaimed “you need to find new cheese!” and made my dad read the book. The book follows two mice and two little people around a maze, each of them having a different attitude about cheese and how it’s related to success. One of the little people, Hem, is grouchy and completely resistant to change, so when his favorite cheese station runs out, he decides to stay in the station convinced that somebody took his cheese and it will come back (it won’t and he ate all of it). Haw, Hem’s companion, is initially just as resistant to change, but quickly realized that nothing would happen sitting in the same place: they had to go find new cheese. Throughout the book, Haw displays fear as he embarks on an adventure through the maze to find new cheese, which we see turn into liberation when he eventually finds even better cheese than he had before in a new cheese station. Hem stayed stuck to his stubborn ways, never moving from the cheese station. We don’t really know what happened to him, but we know he didn’t get new cheese. My dad quit his job soon after and eventually became the CFO at a new company. As humans, we get comfortable in the routine of going back and forth to the same cheese, and don’t notice when it’s going bad and it’s time to find something new. Like Haw, we have to venture down unfamiliar roads to grow into the changes waiting for us. Change can be scary, but it always teaches a lesson and bears fruit if you’ll accept it. This year, SHEI magazine found some new cheese. We have a lot of new and exciting faces on our team, and with that comes new visual approaches, different perspectives, and an overall steamy, sexy makeover. We aren’t leaving behind what we know and love about SHEI, but we are taking an opportunity to go somewhere unfamiliar while allowing it to expand and flourish into something we haven’t seen before. As a team, we’re challenging ourselves to look beyond what we know and experiment with the unexpected – most of all, we’re embracing change. I joined SHEI magazine last year when I had transferred to the University of Michigan. I applied (nervously) to the Digital Photo team, and when I got in, that is where I stayed... for a semester. I was pulled up to the Print Photo team for the remainder of the year. In only a year’s time, I worked my way from Digital Photo Editor to Creative Director, and I am so proud and honored to collaborate with this wonderful team and do things we have never done before. Looking back, I realize that some of the most exciting opportunities I’ve had came from stepping outside of what I initially thought I would be doing. Now, I get to help lead a team of people who are doing the same, and I couldn’t be more excited to see where we go. I opened this letter essentially telling you not to stick to the same programs, but this is one you should. Kick your feet up – don’t get too comfortable – and stay tuned!

HANNAH RUFFIN Creative Director 35