Lori HuangBIOSC Senior & pre-med For students who are pre-med, clubs are something they may stress over as they try to figure out how to fluff up their future med school applications. As a pre-med student myself, that was something that was initially on my mind. However, I have found it much more fulfilling to join clubs that I actually like instead of something that “looks good.” It’s also much easier to talk and write about something you are truly passionate about if you are discussing your extracurriculars in med school interviews or applications anyways. In my case, my favorite extracurricular by far is The Pitt Pulse, Pitt’s Honors-affiliated science magazine. Besides obviously writing STEM articles and getting published (which is great too!), The Pitt Pulse also showcases beautiful designs made by the design department, which I have been the co-Art Director of since I was a sophomore. Funnily enough, I only joined at the suggestion of the then Dean of the Honors College, but I have since grown to love designing for the magazine over the past three years. Although the topics in the magazine are STEM-related, the process of making graphic designs for the articles allows you to exercise your creativity over the scientific rationality of the content. Even if you’re a STEM major, you can be artistic too! In terms of the design department, The Pitt Pulse meets three times for each magazine we publish (which is four times a year) to go over our rough drafts of designs for the articles and give design critiques. Designers use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign to bring their designs to life. If you don’t have any experience, it’s no problem! The other Art Director and I have uploaded training videos and the vast majority of our new designers who also have no experience have produced wonderful designs. The Pitt Pulse is a great club to learn skills in Adobe and be creative. It’s always rewarding to receive the physical manifestations of your work in magazine form at the end of the cycle (I’ve kept every single one!). The way that the cycles are designed also means that designing isn’t much of a time commitment if you’re a busy Biological Sciences major like me. You don’t have to design for every cycle either--just design when you have the time and when you want to. There’s no need to pile on more stress for you. If you’re interested, we are always happy to have new designers (or writers). While I can’t say much about the writing side of The Pitt Pulse I can say that I am very proud of the designers and what they’ve made throughout the years. If you enjoy graphic design as well, then I hope that you can be one of those designers too 😊 Lastly, if you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected]. You can visit our website at http://www.thepittpulse.org/ and find our magazines at the magazine stands scattered throughout campus (Hillman, Langley, Chevron, Scaife, and the Honors College).
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January 2022
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