NUTMEG PUBLISHING
Nutmeg Publishing is one of the University of Connecticut’s Tier III organizations. Since 1915, Nutmeg has been producing UConn’s yearbook. In 2015, Nutmeg began producing a semesterly magazine. The staff consists of three groups of employees: writers, photographers, and designers.
Sydney Fournier, a third-semester digital media and design major, is a Nutmeg staff writer. In order to write pieces for the yearbook and magazine, she attends events in the community, interviews different people around campus, and features clubs and organizations.
“I love how Nutmeg is involved with all parts of campus, from sports to student government,” Fournier said. “I applied to Nutmeg as a way to get involved and have a chance to write outside of classes. [One of my favorite assignments was] writing about Greek life on campus. [I had] the opportunity to meet with all the sororities and fraternities.”
Elisabeth “Liz” Helmin, a third-semester landscape architecture major, is a Nutmeg staff photographer. As a photographer, she showcases student groups and organizations and their work. Helmin photographs events on- and off-campus, such as productions at the Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts.
“I love being part of a team. I find that when I have the opportunity to share ideas and similar interests with others who feel the same, it is beneficial for myself and the greater goal of the collaboration,” Helmin said. “When [I joined] Nutmeg, I hoped I was given [the] opportunity to share my photos and inspiration not only with the other members of Nutmeg, but the greater community at UConn as well. The Nutmeg community allows everyone on the team to share their ideas and work in a safe and supportive environment.”
Helmin describes the inability to edit the photos she takes for Nutmeg as the most challenging part of the job.
“My favorite part of the [photography] process is sitting down at my computer and looking at my work,” Helmin said. “Knowing that editing is not primarily my job and that I can’t edit and finalize my images hurts just a little!”
Haydn Kerr, a first-semester digital media and design major, is a Nutmeg staff designer. Kerr’s work involves collaborating with Nutmeg writers and photographers in order to create visually appealing page layouts for the yearbook and magazine.
Kerr agreed that the Nutmeg staff is one of his favorite parts of the job.
[Being a part of Nutmeg] allows me . . . to meet amazing people outside of my circle that I otherwise would have never met,” he said. “[One of my favorite moments with the staff was] a particular meeting in which we all got together and made gingerbread houses. It was a fun way to get to know the other staff [members].”
All of the employee groups are led by Nutmeg’s executive board. Neal Krishna, a fifth-semester physiology and neurobiology and English major, serves as Nutmeg Publishing’s editor-in-chief. The executive board coordinates assignments for their respective teams, keeps the staff and the other executive members accountable for their work, and leads the overall production of the yearbook and magazine.
Krishna cites the most challenging thing about working on the executive board as remembering everything.
“There is so much to remember, and you write it down, and then you end up having five different notes of things to write down . . . [so] it’s nice to have other people on your team to help you remember things,” said Krishna. Like Kerr and Helmin, Krishna enjoys working with his fellow staff members. “The people are so rewarding. [Nutmeg] is one of the oldest and biggest yearbooks in the country, and it’s so hard to put that into perspective when you see . . . how big our school is and everything [that] everyone is doing. [But] then you take a step back and look at the end goal, like the 2020 [yearbook]. It’s incredible that we made that. For me personally, it’s also rewarding to see what everyone else produces, because I helped them make that. Like, I’ll conceive a spread sometimes, and Brunna [Louzada] and the designers [will design it], and I . . . can’t believe [that] we had people from all different parts of life working on [something like that]. It’s crazy how all these things come together into something so beautiful.”
Nutmeg is dedicated to documenting life at UConn for this generation and the generations to come. Many of the staff’s efforts are documented in their photographs and writing for the yearbooks and magazines, while their passion, drive, and friendship from the organization will similarly last a lifetime.
Photo by Chloe Parsell Copy by Eileen Sholomicky