Up-and-Comers 2017

Turning to a random person at NYU and hearing what they’ve done always makes me marvel at how successful that student is: balancing a full credit load, maintaining a social life, leading extracurriculars and working one, two or even three jobs. If that’s not the epitome of doing well, I’m not quite sure what is.

However, few students in the following pages would label themselves as such. The modesty they exude cloaks their accomplishments as, after some prodding,  they humbly discuss their outside roles and industry impacts.

From penning New York Times best sellers to running international companies, these students could easily flaunt even one accomplishment. But most choose to instead keep digging and working harder with the passions they chose — or maybe the passions they found too compelling to resist — as they pursue their next steps.

This issue was a truly a labor of love as my amazing managing team helped choose the final 10, because how could one person’s attainment within their industry rank higher than another’s? But Sierra Jackson, Kaitlyn Wang and Lexi Faunce — a trio of the most up and coming people I have ever met — ensured their keen discernment won over my desire to cram every nominee into the following pages.

Had they not helped whittle down the submissions, our outstanding creative director duo of Rachel Buigas-Lopez and Laura Shkouratoff would surely have left us to fend for ourselves as we grappled with the limited InDesign knowledge we could scrap together off Google. They instead designed this gorgeous issue between tireless hours of class, sports and everything else they excel at doing.

But they would have no visuals to work with, had it not been for the strong multimedia team that Polina Buchak and Veronica Liow fearlessly led for this issue. They coordinated and oversaw the video and photoshoot, which Viola Mai, Euan Prentis, Ryan Quan and Julia Saliba helped execute with the utmost professionalism and panache. They worked long hours to ensure the multimedia content online looked immaculate.

Yet nobody on the team worked as rigorously or for as long as our two brilliant copy chiefs Emily Fagel and Katherine Platz did. Their sharp pens and even sharper eyes caught every Oxford Comma, missing dot and too -short em dash, for which I am eternally grateful.

However, the largest thanks from this team effort goes to the 10 individuals who grace the following pages. Their trailblazing, innovative and can-do attitudes help shape the world we know today, and we could not be more awed by their accomplishments. The Washington Square News team hopes you find as much amazement in their work as we did.

Design by Rachel Buigas-Lopez and Laura Shkouratoff | Photos by Ryan Quan | Thumbnails by Kaitlyn Wang