By Julia Zhu

April 3, 2021

GUANGZHOU, China — Joyce Ye leads a busy life recently. Whenever she logs in to WeChat, she gets numerous new message notifications from the WeChat group Publicity Team for the International School’s Anniversary. As the founding chief, Ye is expected to keep an eye on human resource management, communication with the program advisors, publicity supervision, etc.

“It is a huge workload for me. But you know, no pains no gains,” Ye said, referring to her present mental state.

Ye is not the only one adopting a fast-paced lifestyle these days. As the upcoming school’s 20^th anniversary ceremony on campus in April becomes the top priority for “the preliminary publicity group,” as Ye pointed out, the whole team is busily engaged in the event-related tasks.

Meanwhile, Ye needs to prepare for launching the approaching JNU International School’s online English magazine PIONEER with the same team. The coverage on celebration ceremony would mark the start of PIONEER, Ye pointed out.

With almost 20 students in the team, most of them are junior year students from the international journalism program offered in the JNU International School. The team members are split roughly into four branches: layout editing, photo & video production, gathering & writing, and designing, Ye introduced.

“Since we now are at the very first stage of arrangement,” Ye continued, “we would modify the team’s structure if necessary when advisors send further instructions about the magazine.”

One team member Zoe Zhu, a sophomore from the international journalism program, has just completed the anniversary’s logo design. Next, she would be assigned to interview with alumni who would revisit the campus and do related hard news writing.

In 2020, Zhu joined this team when the JNU International School required new blood to publicize the university during the college admissions season and welcome 2020 newcomers.

In Zhu’s eyes, the group leader Ye plays an unreplaceable role in the team’s formation and solidity. “She is passionate and considerate. And she can unify all people.” Zhu stated, commenting on Ye’s behaviors in the team, “With Ye, I would like to contribute myself to the later online magazine.”

Though the team’s long-term plan remains uncertain, Ye assumed that with the support from two program advisors Josephine Song and Ellen Zheng, the team would later constitute the base for PIONEER, the online magazine.

To shape a recognized brand for the International School is mainly Ye’s ambition with PIONEER by covering students’ daily life and the school’s activities in most cases.

Song encourages students in the International School, whether they major in International Journalism or not, to write to the magazine as much as possible.

For the magazine content, Song indicated, “While we now mainly concentrate on 20^th anniversary at this stage, students can extend their coverage to include other issues.”

Saoirse Zhou, a freshman from the international journalism program, shows her positive attitude towards PIONEER. Zhou even defines herself as “a potential reader.” And Zhou added, “Since there is no school magazine in English aimed at students, I believe PIONEER would fill the present gap.”

Ye agreed with this viewpoint. “While we already have a well-established university newspaper in Chinese called 新闻学生, English publication in the university remains still an unexplored territory,” Ye went on, “since students in the international journalism program have English news production skills, they are ideal for filling in the blanks.”

However, Zhou worries that the school’s WeChat official accounts, where students can post similar content like features and hard news stories, have overlapped with the online magazine regarding their functions. “Thus, it might be a waste of resource,” Zhou asserted.

Similarly, Ye also expressed her concern for the future of the magazine. “You know, we face a problem that the publicity team is unable to reach many channels to get their articles published,” Ye said with a bitter smile, “therefore the magazine’s influence would be limited.”

Fortunately, according to two program advisors Song and Zheng, soon, students might get the chance to publish their articles, especially the outstanding, high-quality ones, in China’s national English newspaper China Daily, Nanfang Daily (English edition), or Southern Metropolis Daily (English edition), the two influential regional newspapers. “If one’s works appear in these prestigious publications, it might add more luster to his or her resume,” Song said.

“I would like to spare no effort to achieve the establishment of the magazine,” Ye said, staring at the WeChat window to check how the current work goes, “in this way, I would be considered to be the first generation and as well earn tons of respect from the successors of PIONEER.“

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