From the editor: Welcome to Volume 17, meet The Runner team
The Runner staff pictured left to right, top to bottom: Mariia Potiatynyk, Sukhmani Sandhu, James Timmins, Raff Torres, Sarah Nelson, Rachel De Freitas, Nyamat Singh, Claudia Culley, Suneet Gill. Not pictured: Devaki Mathivanan and Hope Lompe.
As new and returning Kwantlen Polytechnic University students set foot into the start of a new school year this fall semester, The Runner also embarks on new beginnings. Welcome, readers, to The Runner’s new volume — Volume 17.
While The Runner‘s reporting remains the same — bringing you student-focused news, community, feature, opinion, and pop culture stories — there are some new changes and initiatives taking effect this semester, broadening our outreach to keep students informed.
Last summer, The Runner’s Instagram page, @runnermag, was banned in accordance with Meta’s response to the Online News Act. With the launch of Volume 17, we’ve created a new Instagram account, where we’ve rebranded ourselves as KPU’s student media to work around the ban. You can find us at the handle @runnermagg. Give us a follow for daily postings and to stay up to date with KPU-related news! In addition to our Instagram, you can also find us on X, TikTok, and YouTube with the handle @runnermag.
We are still publishing our email newsletter, The Rundown, which features top stories from each of our issues. If you haven’t already, visit the contact page on our website to subscribe to our newsletter. You will receive bi-weekly updates straight to your inbox.
Pitch meetings for The Runner’s contributors will now be held on Mondays at 1:00 pm in a hybrid format. We are always eager to have more KPU students join our contributor base. As a student newspaper, we are a great outlet for students to hone their writing and communication skills. If you’re interested in writing for The Runner, send an email to editor@runnermag.ca, and we can get you started.
Over the past several months, The Runner’s staff have welcomed some new faces. In February, we hired Hope Lompe as our news reporter. Lompe is a fourth-year journalism student and reports on current events pertinent to KPU and its surrounding communities.
In June, we hired Raff Torres as our production artist, a position previously called production manager. Torres is a fourth-year graphic design for marketing student at KPU’s Wilson School of Design. He lays out and helps us put together all of our issues. Our previous production artist, Mikayla Croucher, worked with us for two years and has moved on to new and exciting job opportunities. We are grateful for her dedication to The Runner!
Also in June, Mariia Potiatynyk became our community reporter. She is a third-year general studies student and reports on events and initiatives within the KPU community and beyond.
We also hired James Timmins, a fourth-year journalism student, to fill the photo editor position, in which he takes and edits photos and helps with making artistic decisions. Our previous photo editor, Austin Kelly, left The Runner in May to pursue a career in journalism. We appreciate his time with us and wish him the best of luck with his endeavours.
The arts editor position was filled by Sarah Nelson, a second-year graphic design for marketing student at the Wilson School of Design. Nelson just started the position this month, and we are excited to see the work she will accomplish this semester.
Our previous arts editor Christina Tran worked with us since August 2023, and has moved on to other job opportunities, which we are wishing her all the best in. She created beautiful cover art for our issues, and we are very appreciative of her dedication, creativity, and artistic flair.
Also leaving The Runner this month is our web manager, Rachel De Freitas, who has worked tirelessly to keep our website and social media channels up and running by posting daily. De Freitas has been part of The Runner team for over three years, and we are so grateful for her hard work. We are currently working on filling the web manager position. Those interested in applying can email editor@runnermag.ca for more information.
While we have lots of new staff members, there are still some familiar faces like Nyamat Singh, our managing editor, who helps with editing stories and overseeing our production cycles. Suneet Gill, our associate editor, assists with editing and helping staff in whichever way she can.
Devaki Mathivanan, our operations manager, works the business side of The Runner, managing payroll, invoices, and human resource matters among other duties. Sukhmani Sandhu, our social media reporter, creates videos for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to connect with our readers.
The Runner would not be able to survive without the hard work and dedication of our staff members and contributors. As editor in chief, I’m extremely grateful to have such an amazing team to collaborate with, and that I get to work with and meet thoughtful, inspiring KPU students each week.
If you’re ever on KPU’s Surrey campus, feel free to pop into The Runner’s office in Birch 106 on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm to say hello. If you have any questions about The Runner or want to connect with us, you can also send an email to editor@runnermag.ca.
We look forward to working with and keeping the KPU community informed!
