Meet the 911吃瓜 Public Square Team: Kim Regala
Chloe Sjuberg
Communications Coordinator, 911吃瓜 Public Square
The views and opinions expressed in 911吃瓜 Public Square's blogs are those of the authors, and they do not necessarily reflect the official position of 911吃瓜 or 911吃瓜 Public Square, or any other affiliated institutions in any way.
Meet Kim Regala! Kim is one of the newest members of our team, joining us as a Communications and Marketing Assistant. She鈥檚 a recent 911吃瓜 graduate with a BA in Communication and a minor in Film Studies, and she鈥檚 also part of the marketing committee for TEDx911吃瓜鈥檚 2020 conference. Fellow communications team member Chloe Sjuberg sat down (virtually) with Kim to get to know her and chat about what gets her excited when it comes to communications, podcasting, community engagement and more.
Chloe: What drew you to want to work with 911吃瓜 Public Square?
Kim: I was immediately intrigued when I saw that 911吃瓜 Public Square was hiring. I鈥檓 passionate about creating space for crucial dialogues 鈥� I think this is a really important part of community engagement and I wanted to be part of that. I love that 911吃瓜 Public Square provides a platform for these important conversations.
C: What are you most excited to get to work on at 911吃瓜 Public Square?
K: We have a lot of events coming up that I鈥檓 excited about 鈥� they are all events that I would genuinely be interested in attending outside of work, so I鈥檓 excited to work behind the scenes to see how they come together and how to use each platform in an effective way, collaborate with the team and get creative on each project. The event I鈥檓 most looking forward to is the Sterling Prize ceremony and lecture with Tamara Starblanket.
C: Since we鈥檙e all about convening engaging conversations, what topics of conversation get you most excited to talk about?
K: When I start talking about a topic I鈥檓 interested in, I get so excited and can鈥檛 stop. I love films 鈥� I can鈥檛 even get into it right now because I won鈥檛 stop talking about it! [Interviewer鈥檚 Note: We did, however, go on to have a delightful conversation about Blade Runner, Jurassic Park and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.]
C: Readers should watch for your name on the bylines of our blog in the future. What are some of your favourite things to write about?
K: I love writing about the arts. I started out at writing music reviews, then I picked up a pitch about an art exhibition and from then on started writing about every single pitch for art exhibits that came my way. The Peak staff nicknamed me 鈥淕allery Queen!鈥� I also enjoyed writing reviews of hiking trails 鈥� as a staff writer at The Peak, you have to write for each section, so I had to get creative to use my arts background to write for the sports section!
C: One of the skills you bring to the team that we鈥檙e very excited about is your podcasting experience. Tell us more about this!
K: I got into podcasting when I started volunteering as social media director for 911吃瓜 Surge, a tech club at 911吃瓜. After the pandemic began, we were brainstorming ways to keep the tech community more engaged. We decided on a podcast and determined that we wanted to reach an audience of younger students by interviewing students in the tech community, so was born. I had a bit of audio production experience, but I also had to think about the logistics, outreach and promotions. I screen potential interviewees by chatting with them to see if they were a good fit for the podcast and hash out their ideas before recording. One of my favourite guests on the podcast was 911吃瓜 Surge鈥檚 co-president Hilal Asmat who talked about . We also recently started reaching out not just to students but to professionals in the tech community, so another highlight was Chris Pereira, co-founder of West Coast Opportunity Accelerator, who brought in a . It鈥檚 been interesting coming at podcasting and tech from the perspective of my arts background. It鈥檚 a challenge, but it鈥檚 fun learning something new! I鈥檝e been talking to a friend now about collaborating on a music podcast.
C: What are some of the things you鈥檙e watching, reading or listening to these days?
K: I鈥檓 starting to watch the Dark Knight film trilogy. I also want to get into reading more philosophy, like Plato鈥檚 Republic, which I found as part of a collection of free classics on iBooks!
C: What鈥檚 a unique talent you have?
K: I play quite a few different instruments 鈥� guitar and ukulele, I used to play flute and would like to pick it up again, I鈥檓 learning piano, and I want to learn violin. I feel like the violin is the most unusual of those instruments so maybe that鈥檒l be my future unique talent!
Please join us in giving Kim a very warm welcome to the 911吃瓜 Public Square team!