Editor’s Note

Towards the end of the 2019 spring semester, I walked into the launch party for REFINE’s second issue at the rowhome of one of the inaugural executive sta members. Earlier that semester, I emailed Sarah Madaus, our founder, to ask if I could join their growing team of sta writers and send over a couple of poorly written articles I had thrown together during my brief career as an opinion blogger in high school (but we don’t talk about that now). Astonishingly, I was welcomed onto the team and was overjoyed at the chance to celebrate my rst published magazine clip alongside the rest of the team.

As an anxious freshman, I was terri ed of making a bad rst impression— so naturally, I made myself look completely stupid. Donning business casual with a bright pink blazer to my rst ever college party, I walked up to the host to ask if I could have a mimosa even though I was “only 18 years old.”

Seriously, who does that?

Lucky for me, Sarah Madaus and, later, the incoming editor-in-chief, Francesca Furey, looked past my awkwardness and instead saw my unbridled sincerity and overenthusiastic commitment to REFINE’s mission, which landed me in my rst editor position the following school year. If you had told me at that party that in 2020 we would be in the middle of a global pandemic AND I would have been asked to lead the REFINE team for the next two years, I wouldn’t have believed you.

While I can only hope that even more glorious projects and accomplishments are to come, I can say now with the upmost sincerity that leading this team for the past two years has been the privilege and joy of my career. But now it’s time for me to hand REFINE over to another sincere and enthusiastic freshman that joined our team my rst year as EIC, one who once reminded me so much of myself that day at the launch party and who I’ve watched grow over the past two years into a talented and incomparable editor, writer, and friend: Samantha Roehl.

I can’t wait to see how she continues to develop REFINE and I know you’ll love her as much as I do.

Until next time.

Cheers,

Rebekah

photography by Haley Domzalski