What is the Graduate Press’s mission?
As a student-run organisation, our mission at The Graduate Press (TGP) is to serve as a bilingual and independent platform for student voices at the Geneva Graduate Institute .
Can you tell us more about how the Graduate Press functions — what does the editorial team look like, and how do you decide what to publish in The Graduate Press?
While the working format of The Graduate Press team is perpetually evolving and expanding, due to the shifting role it plays in student life at the Institute, the following format serves as the basis for the current Editorial Board.
For this semester, the Editors-in-Chief are Sabrina Casale and Laura Minnetian, who are responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the publication, meetings, events, budget, and print issue. The team’s editors and reporters, in charge of editing, covering, and coordinating stories, are divided within French writers, news reporters and student life reporters. In addition, specifically for this semester, additional teams were formed: one in charge of social media, one responsible for curating the print issue and one for organising TGP events. As a new figure, we also added a person in charge of maintaining relationships with other student associations.
We believe that such a team helps the press organisation to uphold the highest standards of journalistic ethics, with the aim to report accurately on current events, inform the wider student community, protect our sources and collaborations, and keep those in power accountable, both at the Institute and around the world.
Student newspapers are key to campus culture. What role do you see the Graduate Press playing in the Geneva Graduate Institute student community?
Covering student life and interests, international politics, academic affairs, and opinion pieces, The Graduate Press and its Editorial Board aim to contribute to the press culture of the Graduate Institute. TGP aims to take a more unique stance on current academic and political developments by actively engaging with the student body through staying in touch with other Initiatives and interviewing students on their personal experiences. Additionally, TGP encourages students to submit their own articles in English or French.
Created in May 2018, The Graduate Press is relatively young. How do you hope to see the Graduate Press grow over time?
From being a small team of editors in 2018, publishing articles a few times a semester, TGP has now evolved into a fully student-run publication with an online platform. For this semester, TGP is really striving to take a step further: writing more in French following the Institute’s bilingual policy, engaging more actively in the student community also means building stronger relationships with other student organisations, attending and reporting on their events, and providing a general overview of how students at the Institute develop projects and ideas. We are also increasing our activity on social media, conducting public interviews and seeking opinions from individuals at the Institute on specific topics. We aim to see TGP grow into the most genuine and authentic platform that shares student voices, as well as showcasing the broader sides of Geneva, beyond the Institute, where students can relax, breathe, have fun, and engage in meaningful ways.
Photo of the Graduate Press Board, first row left to right: Nadir Gerber, Madeleine Fages, Laura Minnetian, Sabrina Casale, Francesca Polano, Sydney Wiser, Jose Eduardo Martinez Torres, Gregory Wagner, Aliasger Husain Hatim Bootwalla, Paolo Tarony Saisi De Chateauneuf, Meera Mohankrishnan, Melisa Kisacik, Inès Dupont, Valentine Matta. Not pictured: Wassim Atrissi and Audrey Hubleur.