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Ava Peguese:
Welcome back to the Podcast. The State Press Magazine is back with the Active Issue! You can pick up a copy at newsstands around campus or check it out online!
Connor Greenwall:
We also interviewed 3 reporters about their articles within the Active Issue.
Ava Peguese:
But first... An editor-to-editor interview with magazine editor-in-chief, Savannah Dagupion, and podcast editor, Kylie Saba.
I’m Ava Peguese.
Connor Greenwall:
And I’m Connor Greenwall, and this is State Press Play.
Kylie Saba:
Hi I’m Kylie Saba, podcast editor for State Press Play, and I’m here with Magazine Editor in Chief, Savannah Dagupion and this is Editor-to-Editor. Savannah is a senior studying Journalism and Mass Communications as well as English. Savannah, how did you come to be the magazine editor-in-chief?
Savannah Dagupion:
Well before this year, I was a managing editor, so throughout my junior year, and then before that, I was a full-time reporter at the magazine. And then before that, I was a part-time reporter. I joined State Press magazine in September of my freshman year. So literally, since the beginning of college, I've just been a product of the magazine, and I've been here ever since.
Kylie Saba:
That's so cool. So you've been in magazine for quite a while, starting out as a part-time magazine reporter. So what was one of your favorite issues that you were part of, and what was your favorite article you've ever written for the magazine?
Savannah Dagupion:
Oh, man, those are big questions. Let's see.I guess one of my most memorable issues that I was a part of was when I was a freshman. I believe it was the consumption issue, and I wrote a story on the campus harvest. So if you guys didn't know, here at ASU, we harvest oranges and dates, and it was just such a fun project. And I took my own photos for that story too, and my editors put it in the magazine. So that was really cool experience. Yeah, and then, but my favorite story overall has probably been I wrote a piece discussing the ethics of ASU presence in Hawaii, and I'm from Hawaii, and so that was just a really important piece to me, but it was also just like a very serious report. So I really liked it.
Kylie Saba:
What was your favorite part of the magazine process?
Savannah Dagupion:
My favorite part was probably pitching. I have a few new reporters this year, and so it was really exciting. I was just really excited to see, like, what their brains could come up with for the active issue. So yeah, pitching, but then obviously, like the rest of the process, is great as well.
To hear more from Savannah, please tune in to State Press Play.
Ava Peguese:
Hello listeners, it's Ava! I’m here with Abigail Wilt, author of the State Press Magazine article “Tears, Sweat, and Stamina: The Pitfalls of Sorority Recruitment” in which she tells her recruitment journey and gives us an insight into the process. Tell me Abby, what inspired you to write about your experience with recruitment?
Abigail Wilt:
So I actually went through the recruitment process myself, and when I was going through the process, I was finding that I was having a lot of experiences that I didn't expect and were really, I mean, it was a good and bad experience, but some of it was difficult, and I feel like it wasn't really talked about. So that what, that's what led me to write the article and kind of give a comprehensive view of the negative and positive aspects of going through such an intense process like soar recruitment.
Ava Peguese:
Well, that leads into my next question, was there specific moments during the recruitment process that stood out as, like, challenging or eye-opening to you?
Abigail Wilt:
I think just the environment in general, and the fact that it's Arizona and it is 100 degrees, and you're outside, and you are there all day, and you're just standing out there, and you're having to talk to girls in a room that's like as loud as a concert. So you're straining your voice, and then you're also draining your social battery all day, and then you're also, you know, getting yourself set up with these with expectations for the houses that you want. You're getting attached to certain houses in the process, in general, and then you might get disappointed, so it's emotionally draining as well. But yeah, those are some of the things I didn't expect.
Ava Peguese:
How did your expectations of sorority life compare to the reality you encountered during recruitment?
Abigail Wilt:
I think when I was going through or I was told that before I went through the process that it was going to be very positive. You know, you listen to stories from current sorority members talking about their recruitment experience and how positive it was for them, and so you think that your experience is going to be the same. And I never heard any negative views or negative stories from girls that went through recruitment. So I was just expecting to kind of get the most that I could out of the experience that it was going to be this really, like exciting time, and I was going to leave with what I came in wanting.
To hear more from Abigail, please tune in to State Press Play.
Kylie Saba:
I’m here with Fatima Gabir (Fat-ima Ga-bir), author of the State Press magazine article “A Year of War and Counting” Fatima, Could you tell us about the process of writing this article?
Fatima Gabir:
I've looked at how advocating for Sudan has been for, you know, Sudanese people, especially, and the challenges of it. So my friend Hiba and Hazar restarted. It was more hiba's idea, but we started this organization called Sudanese Youth for change and and we've just been trying to get our name out there. It's been, it hasn't been like difficult, but there are some challenges. We're just always just busy with school and stuff. But in general, we we made this platform to organize for Sudan. I guess we've just been trying to get different responses from different communities, like the Muslim community, the like local orgs and stuff like that.
Kylie Saba:
What stood out to you the most when researching for this article?
Fatima Gabir:
I guess just, I guess, kind of like reliving the day the war broke out, like researching the different facts and how everything led to one another led to the fighting. And now, after more than a year, I a lot of, there's a lot of things going on, like sexual violence, um looting and just all types of systematic violence and allegations of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Um, so it was just, I guess, a lot to re to remember, but it's, it's very necessary to get that information out.
Kylie Saba:
Was it hard to write about what your culture and family went through?
Fatima Gabir:
Um, I wouldn't say hard, and I kind of like enjoyed writing about it, like, in a way, because I'm passionate about that, about Sudan and my Sudanese culture, and I like bringing that to the State Press. I did also do a Sudan story last year, and just wanted to do, like a part two, you know, this is still happening. And yeah, I guess it was kind of hard to reach out to people that would be available for an interview and would want to talk about, like, activist fatigue. And so, yeah, those were definitely the challenges.
To hear more from Fatima, please tune in to State Press Play.
Connor Greenwall:
I'm here with George Headley. He is the politics editor at the State Press. He is a sophomore from ASU, and is from Surprise Arizona. George, how did your experience as the State Press politics editor come into play while writing this article for magazine?
George Headley:
Yeah, of course. So I think the biggest factor of my experience as a politics editor, translating to this story, was seeing firsthand the experiences a lot of other students in the journalism industry and how they kind of respond to social media and this overload of social media that happens on a day by day basis throughout our lives. And I also believe that the past research that I've done into politics and the experiences I've had becoming well informed into the cycle of, you know, the 24 hour news cycle is something that was very special to me, because I tried to understand why it was making me feel this certain kind of way.
Connor Greenwall:
And what was the process like writing the article for magazine as compared to, like the normal weekly articles you would write?
George Headley:
it was a little different. Magazine does things a little bit more, I want to say creatively, they're able to express yourself in different ways that a normal newsroom wouldn't really allow you to do. You're able to do more expressive work, and you're able to really shine your style throughout your writing through a magazine. It's much different from the newsroom, where things are always busy, you're always trying to get stuff done day by day. So the routine is kind of almost fractured when you're working on a magazine, because all of a sudden the routine spans out, through the course of a month, and you really have to delve deep into what you're writing about, and more importantly, with something like an insight piece, how you really feel about the story as a whole, and how can you translate that to your audience.
Connor Greenwall:
And how did this article come to be? Is this something that you sought out? Were you asked to write it?
George Headley:
So over the summer, I noticed a very interesting pattern, for me personally always checking my phone for, like, news alerts. And it became a certain thing because we experienced a lot of different like political events, or a lot of different historical events, you know, the pandemic back in 2020.This election, which has been a pretty crazy one, I think a lot of these things played into account, into my feelings of, I need to make sure I'm always on top of this. I need to make sure I'm always informed of what's going on. And in doing so, everything kind of seemed like it's sped up right where it got really, really fast. And I wanted to see if this ability to or this feeling of like, oh my gosh, all of a sudden, these kind of stuff, like these different topics and these different events that are happening that should worry me aren't really worrying me anymore. I'm starting to lose this ability to like care once I realized that, I realized just how important is to try to process those feelings, try to process those emotions, and make sure that my writing can help reflect exactly what I'm feeling in that moment. I think it was really important for a lot of people especially those in the journalism industry as well politics and in activism groups to make sure you're always being passionate, being caring about the people around you, because that's overall, the most important part of doing what we do.
To hear more from George, please tune in to State Press Play.
Ava Peguese:
And that’s all for this week’s State Press Play. I’m Ava Peguese.
Connor Greenwall:
And I’m Connor Greenwall. State Press Play is produced by our podcast desk editor, Kylie Saba. Our original music is by Ellie Willard and Jake LaRoux.
Ava Peguese:
Special thanks to our managing team, Morgan Kubasko and Matthew Marengo.
Connor Greenwall:
You can check out all these stories and more on statepress.com. See you next week.
