Kendall Campus To Launch Student-Led General Interest Feature Magazine

When Emily Sendin, a professor in the English and communications department at Miami Dade College, transferred to Kendall Campus this fall, she had big aspirations. 

After years of attending student media conventions, Sendin, who advised Urbana—the literary & arts magazine at the Eduardo J. Padrón Campus—for 15 years, realized the College did not have a general interest magazine. 

 “Why does Miami Dade [College] not have this?” she thought. 

Sendin is changing that. 

The 49-year-old’s honors leadership course (IDH2003) at Kendall Campus plans to launch Coalesce—the College’s first student-led general interest feature magazine this spring. 

It will serve as the class’ capstone leadership project and present columns, articles, and feature stories. The team also plans to incorporate social media, a podcast and a website. 

Coalesce, a verb that means to come together to form one mass or whole, will print twice a year and produce 300 copies per cycle.

The magazine’s dimensions, including page count, size and paper quality, will remain a secret until its launch in January.   

“One of the main things we want to do is showcase different backgrounds [and] open people’s minds to greater knowledge,” said Pedro Callendar, who serves as a writer and part of the marketing team.  “And what a perfect way to do that from the beginning. They can look up [the meaning of the name] and they learn something new. And that’s the whole point of our magazine, to learn new things.”

For more than a month, the staff deliberated about what to name the magazine.  

Various names that incorporated the Kendall Campus brand were considered—Kendallites, Khaos—but none felt right, until Sofia Martinez, who serves as the magazine’s layout-design editor, suggested Coalesce.

“Not only does it have a nice, pretty ring to it, but it also is really meaningful,” said Sofia Vizcarra, the publication’s editor-in-chief. “More than just the Kendall name, that’s really who we are. This will be a magazine where students come together to work on these columns and share it with the rest of the MDC community.”

The magazine will be a happy-medium between hard news and art; a space for students to explore writing while acquiring experience in leadership, design, marketing and social media, Sendin said. 

Coalesce, which is slated to print in December,  will cover topics of student interest, ranging from arts, sports and culture to social, economic, political and environmental issues. 

“These articles, stories and columns are going to be from their own peers,” Vizcarra said. “Stories and columns always have a different resonance when it comes from people that are like you.”

The staff is developing the magazine’s first drafts, color palettes, media kit, logo and website. They have not settled on a theme, but the issue will feature articles on mental health, education, fashion, music and AI ethics. 

Currently, Coalesce is composed of IDH students, but they hope to open participation in the magazine to the entire Kendall Campus, eventually establishing an office and a class that’s directly related to producing the magazine.

“[My goal is] to produce a legacy that serves the Kendall Campus community, raising awareness about issues, opening minds, offering divergent points of view [and] opening a space for dialogue about different issues,” Sendin said. 

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