The Initiative, Regent University’s New Academic Journal
Too many times has a paper been applauded and recognized for its noteworthy degree of excellence only to be saved as a file that will likely be forgotten in a week’s time. For many students, several hours and late nights are spent on coffee-runs, intense research, and careful preparation for a passion-fueled project. Though praiseworthy comments and a high grade may reward the author’s efforts fairly, what if there was another means of congratulations for their exemplary endeavors?
This is the mission of the Initiative; Regent University’s new student-run academic journal. Undergraduates now have the opportunity to see their hard work published and distributed for the world to enjoy. The idea of this project was conceived by executives from the Thomistic Institute (TI) in the fall semester of 2023. The executive board reached out to several professors expressing interest in setting up the journal and asked them to promote the idea in their classes.
An overwhelming number of professors obliged and assisted in the search for potential authors to start off the first edition. With the support of faculty, fellow students, and more, the Thomistic Institute chapter worked week after week to plan the layout, editing process, and launch of this intellectual journal. Starting with a team of three, the Thomistic Institute chapter added four new members in the spring to meet the demands of both a busy semester of TI events and the workload of editing papers for the Initiative.
After the authors were found for the first edition, Bennett Bauer and Alli Taylor, two TI executives, assembled a team of editors to revise the submitted papers. Through a meticulously crafted system, editors worked with the authors to polish their pieces. While I write this, the works compiled in the Initiative are finished and off to the printer. Very soon, 100 copies of the journal will be published and distributed around the Regent campus for students and faculty alike to read and share.
The Thomistic Institute plans on hosting the official launch of the Initiative on April 24, 2024 at 4:30pm on the Coffeehouse 77 patio. Seth Bauer, myself, other members of the TI, and the executive board of the journal will be present to help hand out freshly printed copies.
The Thomistic Institute executive board, the journal editing team, and other authors will also be present to celebrate the Initiative’s launch. Even more than celebrating the reveal of the publication, we would like to celebrate the authors and their dedication to pursuing excellence in their writing. In a world where the prose and thoughtfulness of exposition are substituted by mediocrity, shallowness, and the further development of technology, it is inspiring to know that there are scholars preserving the tradition and beauty of writing.
Similar to how many of our favorite authors have moved our hearts and minds through their skill and mastery of the English language, so too have these contributors honored God by promoting truth, goodness, and beauty to combat the ideas of a secular world.
As the president of the Thomistic Institute, being involved in this project was one of my greatest privileges this past year and I am so excited for others to see the hard work of the talented writers who have championed Christian beliefs in their compositions. It reminds me of Winston Churchill, who, in a time of strife and peril, was well known for his bold and inspiring words during the Second World War.
Edward Murrow, an American journalist with CBS, described him saying, “now the hour had come for him to mobilize the English language and send it into battle…It lifted the hearts of an island of people when they stood alone”.
Our team hopes that the legacy of this journal will inspire students to push the extra mile, strive for excellence, and eventually find their names on the covers of our future editions.
