Introducing Your Fall 2024 Editing Team!

From left to right, Madeleine Voth ‘25, Louis Chase ‘26, Anie Kotha ‘25, Piper McKeever ‘26, and Chloe Hsy ‘25

Photo courtesy of Michael Wright ‘28

Hello and welcome to yet another semester of the Quest! With this new semester, and some new (and returning) faces on our editorial board, we thought we would (re)introduce ourselves to you, and lay out some goals and guidelines we have for the coming semester and beyond. We are excited to build on the Quest’s legacy while also trying out some new ideas. This semester, we’re looking forward to bringing you engaging, thoughtful content, and fostering a space for diverse voices to be heard. In addition, we have many new hopes and visions for the paper.

But first, without further ado, here is an introduction to your fall 2024 quediting team!

Madeleine Voth ‘25 is back and more ready than ever for her fourth semester at the Quest! Currently a thesising senior, she is eager to attempt the delicate balance that is doing her thesis and being a Queditor while still keeping at least a fraction of her mental stability. She is super excited to close out her last semester with a bang, and is increasingly glad that the bylaws physically force her out of being a Queditor for the last semester of her senior year. Hopefully, she will be writing some compelling pieces of journalism along the way, so look out for her articles in the Quest this year!

Anie Kotha ‘25 couldn't resist the urge to come back to the Quest (why thesis year your guess is as good as mine). So here they are for their 4th and final semester of the Quest. They’re excited to vibe with the new team while bringing some of that sophomore-year editorial energy back (with their 2023 editor-in-crime Madeleine Voth) They are excited for more smoke breaks and sudokus—because really, what more could you need? The Quest has always been a second home, and they’re eager to help foster a welcoming community one last time before graduation.

Piper McKeever ‘26, after spending one semester as a writer at the Quest, decided why not completely immerse herself into the Quifestyle and go full Queditor? Starting at the newspaper of her first college as a writer, her unintentionally awkward and intensely blue-cold stare, dry sense of humor, and ability to bang out four-to-five articles a week were explicitly not appreciated by the editing team. Now, she is thrilled to find a home in the beloved Quoffice, where at the threshold she is occasionally greeted by cheers, applause, and the chanting of her name (if she is particularly lucky). Piper is Quest Twitter, which she unfortunately can’t turn into a pun, but you should follow for updates anyway. 

Louis Chase ‘26 is in their second semester on the Quest board. In addition to introducing/subjecting the other editors and contributors to their music taste as the Quoffice’s de facto DJ, they are thrilled to start another semester of supporting student autonomy and facilitating discourse through the Quest. They’re also interested in taking full advantage of the Quest’s relatively high level of editorial independence by encouraging contributors to submit more nontraditional pieces and, of course, by continuing to be a thorn in admin’s side.

Chloe Hsy ‘25 is going on her fourth semester as layout editor for the Quest. She’s looking forward to her last semester of editing nights full of wild top rights and late-night snack runs. Chloe often hides secret messages in the Quest, so keep an eye out! She’s been enjoying the additional comics and art this year and says if you doodle in class that you should definitely email them to her at chloehsy@reed.edu.

While the Quest spends about 95% of our time hustling to get the paper out on time, we’ve still got the remaining 5% to dive into some new projects. This semester, we’re hoping to shake things up a bit–maybe host a few workshops with speakers from the world of journalism, and we’re even thinking about revamping our bylaws to represent the new team. We’re interested in finding new and creative ways to engage student writers, and we encourage every member of the Reed community to submit at least one article this year. We cannot emphasize enough the benefits of learning how to write for an audience, and the Quest gives you a team of writers experienced in doing so. This semester, we are also introducing writers having personal Queditors, allowing you to have a contact to run ideas by, ask questions to, and talk to about anything Quest. Openings for Queditors are coming up quickly, and if you’re interested at all in a position, learning more about the Quest and our process is essential for seeing if the editor job is a fit for you!

The five Quest comrades are excited to be serving you all again. Please contribute! We want to sleep! Our meetings are 5:00pm-6:00pm this semester on Mondays and our writers' workshops are 6:00pm-10:00pm on Tuesdays. We hope that everyone is having a great year. Freshmen welcome to Reed, Sophomores stay strong y’all got this, Juniors good luck qualing, and Seniors make us proud with those theses!