Era Journal: President

Hi, I’m Stela, and I’m a second year Architecture and Interdisciplinary Student. In my time at UCL, I have contributed both art and articles to Era print editions. This year I worked as Era’s online graphic designer, making visuals for the Instagram and event posters. This role has led me to cherish Era as a unique platform in UCL for creative voices. As president, I would love to continue this involvement, and refine certain aspects of the magazine to emphasise this creativity.

Making Era’s graphics has given me an understanding of many aspects of the journal, including event scheduling, time management, print announcements and artist call outs. It has also shown the importance of social media for promoting ourselves as a magazine. I plan on boosting engagement with the journal’s Instagram by introducing more content, in the form of weekly recommendations from the Era community and curated culture guides.

Attending previous Era events has given me ideas on how we can nurture a sense of community between members. For example, I’d like to introduce new events, such as arts and craft nights, where members can engage in artistic activity while socialising, creating a network of creatives within the journal. In this way, Era could act as a means of collaboration: a group could make posters which could then be sold to fundraise or the magazine, for example. This would also help to prompt the submission of artwork.

I am standing for President because I possess the leadership qualities it takes to steer a tight-knit and prolific committee and would like to resolve the problems I have observed in Era since becoming a member. In essence, during my tenure as President, I will focus on: 

A – Attracting more to join Era and develop diversity through enhancing current marketing and communications infrastructure.

B – Benefitting writers and creatives part of Era through implementing more hard positions in the society (e.g. staff writers etc.) and incentives (e.g. private viewings, press tickets, etc.).

C – Calling on the power of camaraderie through holding more socials to engage with our members more on a personal level.

Being President is a huge responsibility, but I can confidently say I wield not only the leadership qualities but also the editorial knowledge that a magazine society demands. I have been President of my high school’s journal previously and currently am an active contributor for Era (written for two print issues) and work as Sub-Editor for the Art and Design section. I also write for Pi Media and TheTab London. Such in-depth knowledge of editorial work will be essential in helping me lead the team.

I have drafted a more elaborate manifesto that outlines my vision for Era which I will be sending out during campaign period or upon request – do not hesitate to DM me on Instagram @ngshengying or Linkedin if you have any questions for me!