As editor in chief of Stowaway, I am the only consistent staff member from one issue to the next. For every issue, I start out with a completely new magazine staff of students at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah.

Stowaway, a not-for-profit magazine, was born in fall 2009 and is published quarterly. With the first issue, dated January 2010, the initial staff of Stowaway set a high benchmark for later staffs to reach. Each new staff has found ways to make the next issue even stronger than the last. Every issue showcases the breadth and depth of the students’ publishing abilities. I feel privileged to work with these talented editors, writers, publication designers, and web and social media specialists.

What qualifies me for this task? For 28 years, I was a full-time editor and writer (and an occasional photographer) for an international magazine with worldwide circulation. During those years, I played a role in increasing the number of language versions of the magazine from 19 to 50. For more than half of those years, I was managing editor of the magazine.

That amazing job took me throughout the United States and to more than 30 nations around the world. I loved the opportunity it gave me to travel, discover new cultures, speak a second language, and come to know people in many lands.

I later became a professor at BYU, where I now share with students my love of editing, writing, publishing, and traveling. Because of my own background—and the experiences and interests of my students—it was probably inevitable that we would decide to create a travel magazine as a group project for the capstone course in BYU’s editing minor. Stowaway allows these advanced editing students to practice the principles and skills they have learned in prior editing and publication design classes and to learn and implement new skills.

Professor Marv Gardner

I hope you are enjoying Stowaway.

I hope it inspires your imagination and encourages you to explore the world, immerse yourself in new languages and cultures, and create your own adventures.

—Marv Gardner, Stowaway Editor in Chief