Megan Costello
Hometown: La Crescenta, California
Major: English
Career Goals: Some combination of a librarian/children’s book writer/illustrator/editor
Favorite Book: The answer to this question changes daily, but right now I really like When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. It’s a book about a normal kid’s problems with a time travel twist on the whole plot. Very awesome.
Favorite Part of Editing: Anything with design. It’s fun to see an article come to life on the page and to make it look aesthetically pleasing.
One Vacation Necessity: Camera with its charger. I always use my camera so much that it dies before my trip is over!
I never leave home without: my student ID card. You never know when a student can get a discount on something.
Christopher Fosse
Hometown: Spokane Washington
Major: English
Least Favorite Part of Editing: Spelling.
One Vacation Necessity: Cold weather (I can’t stand being too warm)
Favorite Vacation: The time my friend and I got lost in a blizzard at night.
I never leave home without: An alibi.
Favorite Quote: “This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.” (HAL 9000, 2001: A Space Odessey)
I have never: Been on a cruise.
Dream Travel Location: Norway
Kelsey Gee
Hometown: Spokane, Washington
Major: Art History and Curatorial Studies
Career Goals: Editor for Art Publication
Favorite Book: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Favorite Part of Editing: Substantive editing, making something better than it was before.
Favorite Vacation: My family almost got stranded on St. John, but the last boat of restaurant workers agreed to take us up to the main island (St. Thomas), where we quickly zoomed in a taxi to our cruise ship, minutes before it left.
I never leave home without: My iPod
Jen Jones
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, California
Major: English
Career Goals: Pipe dream? Write for National Geographic.
Favorite Book: The Hiding Place
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: How to work hard but maintain my personal balance.
Favorite Vacation: United Kingdom.
One Vacation Necessity: A colorful scarf.
Favorite Vacation: I ditched work and school for a week to go paint and photograph haystacks in Cardston, Alberta.
Caroline Kowalis
Hometown: Sandy, Utah
Major: English
Least Favorite Part of Editing: Hyphenated words.
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: I can do it.
Favorite Vacation (locale): Disneyland
One Vacation Necessity: A partner in crime.
Favorite Quote: “Why cry when you can laugh?”
I have never: been mugged.
Dream Travel Location: Western Europe.
Lauren S. Pinegar
Hometown: Huntington Beach, California
Major: English
Career Goals: Professor, Nurse, Editor, Grand Thinker, or all of the above?
Favorite Book: Shakespeare’s complete comedies and tragedies (does that count as a book?)
Favorite Part of Editing: Making friends
Favorite Vacation: Paris (bien sûr)
One Vacation Necessity: A positive, flexible attitude
Favorite Vacation: It’s always falling in love—with a person, place, food, or whatever. It never matters what with, and it happens every time I travel.
I never leave home without: A question.
Alyson Reid
Hometown: Spring, TX
Major: Humanities, English emphasis
Career Goals: I have an internship with the LDS Church History Library after graduation. After that it will be a surprise.
Favorite Book: Sense and Sensibility
Favorite Part of Editing: Making the author sound his or her very best
Least Favorite Part of Editing: Finding the missing comma
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: I took a Gothic Humanities class, I loved learning about the gothic as it relates to film and literature and how people react to and interact with the gothic.
Favorite Vacation: London
One Vacation Necessity: Camera, of course!
Stephanie Secrist
Hometown: Loveland, CO
Major: Humanities: English
Career Goals: Writer, manage a company/group, mom, teacher. . . change lives one life at a time!
Favorite Book: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Dracula
Least Favorite Part of Editing: I hate looking up little rules that I can’t remember
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: I learned, and proved, that I can do anything I work at.
One Vacation Necessity: Know why you are going; have a purpose to your travels.
Favorite Vacation: I studied abroad in the Middle East. We lived and studied in Jerusalem, then we took amazing, life-changing trips to the Red Sea, Dead Sea, Egypt, Jordan, Galilee, and more. I remade myself that semester into someone stronger and deeper.
Whitney Sorensen
Hometown: Idaho Falls, Idaho
Major: English
Career Goals: Become an Olympic sportswriter for any magazine
Favorite Book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Favorite Part of Editing: Negotiating changes with an writer
Favorite Vacation: Dublin
One Vacation Necessity: A journal
I never leave home without: Reading material
Favorite Quote: “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” —Groucho Marx
Dallin Turner
Hometown: Kaysville, Utah
Major: Print Journalism
Career Goals: Sports Editor
Favorite Book: Les Miserables
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: How to stay awake all night long.
I never leave home without: A pen in my pocket or ear
Favorite Quote: “Remember, licking doorknobs may be illegal on other planets.” —SpongeBob SquarePants
I have never : Swam in the ocean
Dream Travel Location: Prague
Kelsi Walbeck
Hometown: South Jordan, UT
Major: English
Career Goals: I would like to be an editor for a publishing company and do some freelance editing on the side. I would also love to teach music (piano, voice, and guitar).
Favorite Book: The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Emma by Jane Austen
Favorite Part of Editing: I like the copyediting. I like refining all the little details.
One Vacation Necessity: Good walking shoes.
Favorite Vacation: Without the Utah mountains, my family gets lost quite easily. So, every time we travel out of state, we always end up getting lost. One time, while trying to find a main road in Far West, Missouri, we lost our way. We ended up driving on small dirt roads through corn fields that went on as far as we could see. Pretty soon, we were lost in the corn fields and couldn’t find our way out. Luckily, we came across a small farm, and we stopped and asked for directions. Although it took some time, we finally found our way out of the corn fields and made it to the main road. Phew!
Jordan Carroll, Advisor
Hometown: Grew up in Texas. Graduated in Nebraska.
Major: Print Journalism
Career Goals: Write, photograph, and design my own packages for a travel magazine
Favorite Magazine: National Geographic/Southern Living
Least Favorite Part of Editing: Sending pages to the printer. It’s the most nerve-wracking feeling.
Favorite Thing You’ve Learned in College: Don’t be afraid to be creative and innovative.
Favorite Vacation: I love the entire Middle East: Israel, Egypt, Jordan.
I never leave home without: My iPhone. Especially when traveling. It’s good for photos, video,and audio. Finding food locations. Navigating transportation.
Marv Gardner, Editor in Chief
Teaching Professor, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Brigham Young University
Hometown: Grew up in Duncan, Arizona, and Provo, Utah. I currently reside in Pleasant Grove, Utah
Career: Before becoming a professor at BYU in 2005, I worked for 28 years as a full-time editor and writer for the Ensign and Liahona magazines, both of which are distributed worldwide. For more than half of those years, I was managing editor of the Liahona.
Favorite Part of Editing: Working with interesting people who have something worth saying.
Favorite Travel Experience: In the early 1990s, I traveled to a remote, obscure village in Paraguay. When I stopped at a random dwelling, the first person I happened to meet was a man sitting on a wooden chair under a tree, reading a recent issue of the international magazine I had edited.