I’m immensely impressed with and proud of this magazine you are holding. It represents hundreds of hours of planning, learning, photographing, recalibrating, interviewing, collaborating, editing and design. It wasn’t created by professionals or even by the experienced team of volunteers at Speak Up. This issue—from the earliest moments of inception—is wholly the work of college students from Davidson College in Davidson, NC.
Boldly at their helm is rising senior Noah Driver, who served in Speak Up’s first class of summer interns in 2013. As a Bonner Scholar, Noah is one of a select group of students—at Davidson and beyond—that has made a commitment to community service as part of their under graduate education. We knew right from the start we were fortunate to have him. After a successful summer of participating in the agony and ecstasy of nonprofit homeless magazine publishing, he returned to school as a full-time student. Shortly after that, he pitched the idea of forming a student group at school that would produce the next edition of Speak Up Magazine. It came at a perfect time; we were beginning to retool to launch and begin printing Speak Up Zine, the smaller homeless-authored monthly publication that has become our flagship product.
Our enthusiasm for this edition has only grown from the beginning. Every thread of it is marked by empowerment— which is also key to Speak Up’s core mission. This is a real magazine, not simply a skill-building assignment that will die on a professor’s desk. Students have been empowered to creatively and freely produce the best magazine they could, with their fingerprints and DNA all over it. Once printed, it is purchased at $2/copy by homeless and vulnerably-housed micro-business owners, who are then empowered as they sell it for $5 and keep the profit.
I believe that Noah and the team have pioneered what will be a way forward with the “big magazine” at Speak Up: guest editors will lead outside teams to craft unique and compelling editions that give a voice to many and empower our neediest neighbors. Congratulations, students, you’ve proven that it can be done—and done brilliantly!