From haikus about cows to personal narratives about pet rabbits, The Vision will publish anything as long as it isn’t in English.
The Vision is Baker University’s biweekly foreign language magazine, reliant on student submissions written in German, Spanish, French or any other language. It is distributed every other Friday and features poems, movie reviews, international current event stories and any other type of writing.
“Some students think they have to write a beautiful piece, but they can submit anything,” co-editor Victoria Whitebread said. “We accept anything, really.”
Whitebread, a freshman this year, has been the co-editor of The Vision since August. First semester, she worked with junior Allyson Sass, who is now studying abroad. Freshman Krystyna Van Driel has now taken over as Whitebread’s co-editor this semester.
“I think it kind of helps students discover something beyond the languages that Baker offers,” Van Driel said. “It’s not your typical foreign language homework or something. It’s something new that’s written by your peers, something you can connect with.”
Submissions are edited by foreign language teachers for accuracy. Whitebread sees The Vision as an opportunity for students to be creative in their writing.
“The goal of The Vision overall is to give people a chance to write for fun in a different language without the pressures of a grade, so they can be as creative as possible,” Whitebread said.
The Vision was started in 2005 by Baker graduate Ben Sedillo.
Sedillo was a Spanish major and had the idea for the bulletin after working on The Baker Orange for a semester.
“Basically, it is meant for an instrument that will help us to open a broader spectrum of the world,” Sedillo wrote in both English and Spanish in the first issue of the magazine.
Foreign Language Department Chair Cynthia Appl is the faculty adviser. She said the magazine has been a student publication since its birth.
“There hasn’t been a linear evolution [of The Vision],” Appl said. “Each editor or team of editors takes a different approach and makes it their own.”
Other submissions come from in-class writings.
The editors talk to the foreign language teachers to discover any in-class writings that could work in the magazine.
In the future, both Van Driel and Whitebread see The Vision growing in popularity around campus.
“This is the first year we’ve had editions come out every other Friday,” Van Driel said. “I see it growing and being able to be distributed to every student at Baker, not just language students.”
Whitebread also hopes to spark interest in the student body about the publication’s existence.
“We want to get it online because we don’t have the funding that other school publications have,” Whitebread said. “It’s not that people don’t care, it’s just a lack of people knowing about it.”
The next issue of The Vision will come out Feb. 24.