By Derrek Martinez and Jasmine Coleman
On Nov. 14, the Great Books Curriculum of Wilbur Wright College had published their 9th volume of the Symposium Journal, a student-written and student-edited scholarly journal. A total of 5 student contributors had their very own essays published in the Symposium Journal, research based papers analyzing only the greatest pieces of literature.
The Great Books Student Society held a launch party to celebrate the newest edition to their catalog. Editor and Chief Managing Editor, Gretta Komperda, was one of the four student contributors to be part of the Symposium Journal, and was awarded a total of three certificates by professor Michael Petersen. The four student contributors consist of Jessica Gramajo, who is also a staff member at the Wright Times, Diana Garzon, Dominika Panek, and Eleanor Reft all received a moment of pride and honor as they earned a surprising certificate. A successful and amazing Launch Party for their 9th volume Symposium Journal will remain in the school’s history.
(Left to right: Eleanor Reft, Gretta Komperda, Michael Petersen, Jessica Gramajo)
During the event, professor Petersen and all the student contributors were there celebrating their hard work and enjoying a slice of pizza with everyone's company and support. There was also a Q & A moment where The Great Books Student Society contributors mentioned their inspirations behind writing about their essay and what struggles they faced.
Komperda was able to mention and breakdown a few challenges of getting the Symposium Journal together, as there is a process before these essays can be published and be read by the many others.
Komperda stated,“There’s a place where you send in your essays, and these essay are read by student editors and some faculty editors. They then leave notes and fill up this little checklist and send it back to the student that submitted their essays. Once sent back to the student, we ask the student to revise and send it back based on their notes.”
When learning this process, time and patience is very much considered once someone’s essay is sent in, to be revised, sent back, revised by the student and sent back to the editor for either further editing and publication. Komperda also mentioned another challenge when coming up with this year’s Symposium Journal, “So we started off last semester with about 11 essays that were in consideration. And then once we sent back the comments for the students to fix their essays, a lot of them dropped out and we ended up with 3 essays at the end.” A challenging process indeed! Nevertheless, Komperda was able to help and make a wonderful essay filled Journal Symposium for this year.
Some final words from the Editor and Chief Managing Editor Komperda, “To the readers of the journal, first of all, thank you so much for picking it up and reading. This process, it should be for everybody and it’s an inclusive process and we want more people to be included and to kind realize the importance of these old voices and the Great Books themselves. Because humans themselves, we haven’t really changed much ever, and we still have these core fundamental values and desires.”
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