After 10 years of dedication to the student-run Graffiti magazine, Bill Patterson is passing the baton to fellow English teacher, Shannon Draper.
What began as a discussion over lunch has turned into a reality as Draper will take over sponsorship of the publication in the fall.
“He just said he may be ready to do something different. And I said, ‘Well, if you decide you don’t want to do that, I would happily do it,’ ” Draper said. “I don’t think I thought about it or he thought about it, it was just sort of organic.”
Patterson is looking forward to the opportunity for the publication to get a second set of eyes.
“It’s been 10 years, and I think I’m just ready for a break from it, and see where it can go with some new sponsorship,” Patterson said. “I still want to be involved in it, I just don’t want to have the sponsor’s role so that it can kind of grow.”
Both predict this will be a natural transition of leadership.
“I assume it will get better with new eyes and new passion for it, but I’m open to anything,” Patterson said. “And I’m open to consult when needed, too.”
Patterson plans on assisting Draper in this shift by relaunching the Writer’s Club with a singular focus on writing to be submitted to Graffiti magazine.
“By not being the sponsor, I would have a little more time to work more with the writers themselves,” Patterson said. “This would help submissions too, I think, to be able to do some writing after school in workshops and things that might help produce more works for the magazine.”
Draper shares a similar vision for the magazine next year. She and Patterson plan to work in tangent to raise the quality of the work published and help the magazine reach its full potential.
Draper hopes to avoid any major missteps, but is also aware that imperfection is inevitable in undertaking such an ambitious task.
“One thing that I’m going to try to do, and I know that Mr. Patterson has done every year, is to drum up submissions early so that we aren’t hitting a late deadline,” Draper said. “I will run into the same obstacles that he has, but I know it’s something that I want to work on.”
Another shift will occur in the form of student leadership as well. Patterson and Draper agree that students should remain the driving force, but with the loss of some seniors, new leadership has yet to be chosen by Draper.
“I agree with what Mr. Patterson said about finding students you can trust and have a heart for the publication and want to make it important for themselves and for fellow students,” Draper said. “I think that’s going to be my focus early on, just finding those people.”
Despite her worries of procrastination and the necessary drive of the students involved, Draper is optimistic about her ability to push the publication forward.
“I have no qualms about saying we have to work a little harder or we have to push a little further or if I feel that someone is not doing the job that they have signed on to do, we’ll have that conversation,” Draper said. “I think it’s really important to have people that know it’s an investment in time and effort and passion, as it will be for me.”
To Draper, passion is a key ingredient in such a creative publication. When teaching her creative writing classes as well as working as editor-in-chief of Kansas State’s literary magazine, Draper has learned that passion, combined with dedication, produces the ideal final product.
“I like the idea of students having a place to showcase the work that they’ve done and that they feel passionate about,” Draper said.
In addition to the change in leadership, Graffiti magazine is beginning its development this semester.
For the first time, Graffiti magazine will be found in the pages of the Red & Black yearbook. Although this has been a harder transition for the magazine, the results look promising.
“I like that we have a much larger audience because of it,” Patterson said. “The difficulty is cutting down the size of the magazine to suit the match.”
Some of the content not able to make it in the yearbook will instead be published online to account for the large number of submissions.
As Patterson concludes his final year as sponsor of the publication, he is excited to see the content of the next year.
“[My favorite part of working on the magazine has been] to see how wonderful the submissions are because not everything gets in the magazine, but to just see the diversity of literature that the kids in this school write, to get to see it all piling up,” Patterson said.
Patterson believes that Draper is fully capable of conquering such submissions, and Draper is equally energetic about doing so.
“I’m excited to do it, and I think it will be — I’m not going to say better — but different,” Draper said. “Two different sets of eyes, two different sensibilities and two different management styles and ways to handle the students involved.”