MEET THE EDITORS: Who's Who on The Phoenix?
Wade Wallerstein (’17) is a 19-year-old sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College who is currently studying journalism and digital media. He is the Phoenix’s Editor-in-Chief.
This summer, Wade worked at the mall near his hometown of Los Gatos, CA, which is about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. He spent much time walking along the beach of Northern California, climbing trees, and watching bad movies on Netflix. For two weeks he went to Puerto Rico in efforts to get tan and instead just got burned.
This summer, Wade read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” which he finished quickly in order to start “A Storm of Swords,” the third book in George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice” series (for those of you who don’t know, that means “Game of Thrones”).
In his spare time, Wade enjoys writing about rap music, laying in grassy areas, compulsively eBay-shopping, and watching videos of ocean creatures. You can follow him on Instagram: @boyratchet, and Twitter: @b0yratchet.
Julia Schur (’15) is an international student from Paris, France who moved to New York City in 2012. She is the Phoenix’s Managing Editor.
During the summer, Julia worked on a schizophrenic range of topics. Starting off in June she became an editor at RESPECT. Magazine, which led her to delve deeper into the hip-hop world. She also has been juggling studying for the LSAT. Traveling throughout the summer between Paris, Rhode Island, Boston and New York, her constant companion was “Hard Choices” by Hillary Clinton. You can follow Julia on Twitter: @juliahlna
Sarah McEachern (’17) is the Phoenix’s Print Managing Editor and hails from just near Minneapolis. Her midwestern accent means that she says ‘bag’ funny and calls soda-pop simply ‘pop.’
Sarah returned to Minneapolis over the summer and worked the entire time, with only a brief reprieve to go to the cabin. When she wasn’t working, she was reading. Some of the books Sarah read over the summer were “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “A Moveable Feast, Nine Stories, I Will Never Be Beautiful Enough to Make Us Beautiful Together, Norwegian Wood, The Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri, “Drown, Raise High the Roof beams Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction,” and “The Girl with Curious Hair.”
Nabila Wirakushmah (’17) is the Phoenix’s Web Editor.
She spent her summer in 10 cities and different countries before realizing she probably should have planned for a little more downtime. After spending barely four days at home in Hong Kong, she took off for SLC's Summer Arts in Berlin program where she studied drawing, art history and architectural theory. Once the program was over, she explored Brussels and Amsterdam before heading back to Hong Kong for two weeks to meet up with two of her best friends from SLC and show them around the city and its neighboring country, Macau.
The end of July marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and on the 28th Nabila and her family went to Jakarta to celebrate Idul Fitri. After all the celebrations, they traveled to Bali for three weeks of diving, taking several small trips to and from Lovina, Ubud and Gili Trawangan to experience the part of Indonesia they missed out on while living abroad.
At the start of the summer, Nabila had written out a whole reading list for herself. However, she regrettably only got ‘round to reading one book on the list: Chris Brogan's “The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth.” The book is a guide to entrepreneurship for those who don't quite fit in. She also reread “Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto for the fourth time, even though it was not on her list.
Janaki Chadha (’17) is the Phoenix’s News Editor.
Over the summer, Janaki went back to her hometown of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. She interned with the NYC-based organization The Poetry Society of New York, where she mostly worked on social media outreach, and spent most of her free time reading, writing and eating home-cooked food.
During the summer, Janaki read a lot of different things. She read Junot Diaz's collection, “This is How You Lose Her," lots of Joan Didion, including “Play It As It Lays,” “Middlesex,” by Jeffrey Eugenides, “A Bend in the River” and “A House for Mr. Biswas” by V. S. Naipaul, and she finally finished Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
MaryKatherine Michiels-Kibler (’17), or simply MK, is from San Francisco but also frequently finds herself in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She is the Phoenix’s Features Editor.
MK enjoyed cheering on team FURY at the World Championships of Ultimate Frisbee in Lecco, Italy over the summer. She also enjoyed exploring Berlin with her mom, flying airplanes upside down with her dad, and taking seven kids to Yosemite National Park with her friends.
MK enjoys reading The Week, a magazine that is essentially a cheat sheet to all politics, gossip and current events happening in the world. She finds it useful when wanting to sound like she read many articles when she really only read one.
Colette Harley (’17) is the Phoenix’s Sports Editor. She is made mostly of avocados, chlorine and caffeine.
This summer Colette read most of David Foster Wallace’s short essays, “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, “Taipei” by Tao Lin, “I Love Dick” by Chris Kraus, and re-read “Catcher in the Rye.” Colette is currently working on understanding her feelings about Wallace and might just get around to reading “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville.
When she wasn’t hanging out in Connecticut, she was working in Bronxville. The most notable part of her summer was a pilgrimage to JD Salinger’s house in Cornish, New Hampshire with Print Editor Sarah McEachern (’17).
You can follow her on twitter @intensechoobism
Baldwin Virgin (’17) is from Montclair, New Jersey, where she resides with her parents, younger brother and poodle mix. She is the Phoenix’s Perspectives Editor.
Baldwin worked for Pixie Market as their lead social media intern this summer before continuing on to working for designer Prabal Gurung as a Public Relations intern.
Baldwin’s love of writing can most likely be attributed to her writer mother and literary namesake, James Baldwin. Her love for fashion has been with her since diaper days, but is probably due to the InStyle subscription she received on her eighth birthday.
Her favorite books include “The Human Stain” by Philip Roth, “Dirty Love” by Andre Dubus III, and “My Misspent Youth,” a collection of essays by Meghan Daum.
When she is not shopping her closet or gallivanting around the city, she can be found in her basement watching Sex and the City reruns. Baldwin hopes to be a fashion journalist one day and believes that any woman can conquer the world in a black tuxedo blazer.
Toya Singh (’15) grew up in New Delhi, India, Sydney, Australia, and Manila, Philippines. She is the Phoenix’s Social Media Editor.
Most recently she shifted to Irving, Texas, where she spent her summer doing the classic American pastimes that are visiting the grocery store, pretending she would one day hit the gym, and going to that one mall again and again.
Over the summer, she read Haruki Murakami’s “The Windup Bird Chronicle” and J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey.” After discovering the “Irreverent” genre tag on Netflix, Toya is proud to say that she watched every single episode of every season of “Freaks and Geeks,” “The Office,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Sex and the City,
“Louie,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “That 70’s Show.” She tried “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but it just really, really, really wasn’t meant to be.
Julia Hodgkinson (‘15) is a senior from Vancouver, Canada. She studies largely in the Environmental Studies and Economics departments during her years at SLC, and she keeps up her Spanish too. She is the Phoenix’s Copy Editor.
This summer, Julia lived in Brooklyn and interned with the Climate Initiative at the Clinton Foundation. Her research focus there was largely on renewable energy development in island nations. On weekends, Julia could be found firmly planted with iced-coffee in Fort Greene Park reading the Economist, while most likely on the phone (with her mother). This summer she read “Hard Choices” by Hillary Clinton, and she re-read “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and “Collapse” by Jared Diamond. Julia really enjoys eating, talking, and traveling, but she loves the ocean(s).
Kathy Wielgosz (’17) is a sophomore focusing on literature and she is interested in pursuing publishing after school. She is the Phoenix’s Copy Editor.
Kathy spent her summer working retail and volunteering at her local library in her hometown of Woodridge, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago. During her free time, she re-read her favorite book, “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and finally started reading the “Lord of the Rings” series, which she admittedly should have read years ago.
She spent the last week of her summer break visiting Williamsburg, Virginia and Washington, D.C. before returning to Sarah Lawrence. She can often be found working at the SLC library or procrastinating by cross-stitching while watching Netflix. Her current binge show is “Arrow,” which she finds delightfully cheesy.
Shelby Krog (’17) is a sophomore focusing on a degree in both veterinary medicine as well as journalism. She has a focus to work for National Geographic and has been published in the New York Times as well as the Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. She is the Phoenix’s Copy Editor.
During the summer, Shelby spent her time between California (mostly San Francisco area) and South Florida, working both as a trainer and care taker at Barker’s Pet Resort as an assistant to a marketing executive for Netflix and HBO-go.
In her free time, Shelby volunteers at pet shelters, writes poetry, and engages in fiery social and political conversations with her friends. She loves to read, and most recently finished “Jitterbug Perfume” by Tom Robbins and “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. You can follow Shelby on Instagram: @skroggy.