For Seth Schoenhaus ’18, the Denison Journal of Religion provided opportunities to learn leadership and professional skills.
In his words:
I spent my junior year as a Junior Editor and my senior year as the Denison Journal of Religion’s Editor-in-Chief. My time as a journal editor was both rewarding and illuminating. I was able to work closely with other students and professors to put together two professional publications that I am truly proud of—not only in terms of the products we put out, but also in terms of the personal growth we accomplished together.
This growth wasn’t always easy. It was borne as much from missed deadlines, last-minute edits, and frantic emails as it was from our successes. However, the journal’s team-based environment required us to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual support that mirrored and amplified what makes Denison such a special place. Indeed, it is extracurricular projects like the Journal of Religion that really make a Denison education truly comprehensive and fulfilling.
Our work required coordination that went above and beyond what is normally practiced by college students. For example, the editing team meet throughout the semester to delegate tasks, check each other’s progress, communicate with authors, and format documents to prepare them for publishing.
Honing my coordination and collaboration skills as a journal editor has served me well as a post-graduate, where I have worked in New York City’s World Trade Center assisting Federal Emergency Management Agency employees carry out the day-to-day tasks of disaster preparedness.
Additionally, the opportunity to practice the flexibility required of teamwork and working with outside publishers has been crucial to my postgraduate life. My work in New York City was interrupted by Hurricane Florence, after which I was abruptly transferred to disaster relief commodity staging areas in West Virginia and North Carolina.
My work in these staging areas has seen me utilized in a number of different roles helping prepare life-sustaining products for shipment to Florence survivors. While this work is about as different as possible than journal editing, the skills I developed with the Journal have made me more confident, able, and versatile. In this sense, editing the Journal of Religion was a perfect complement to a stellar liberal arts education.
