2017 Highlights

My clothes are preservers of the memories I carry. In every thread, in each stitching, lies an invisible mark of the things I’ve done, the things I’ve felt, the things I will never forget.

2017 was filled with many memorable outfits—and milestones. Here are some highlights:

I began the year as Editor-in-Chief of my university’s feature magazine, Currents Magazine. Since the beginning of my time at Pepperdine, it had been my dream to hold that position, but never did I imagine the job would take me on the wild journey it did. I learned how to work with virtual reality. I met a New York Times Bestselling Author. I met my future boss at Darling Magazine. I even won the ACP Pacemaker Award (the college equivalent to a Pulitzer Prize) for Best Feature magazine for the Spring 2017 I worked on.

In the midst of my EIC duties, I organized a book signing with Pepperdine Alumni Affairs and facilitated a Q&A with Peggy Grande, the former Executive Assistant to Ronald Reagan. You can read order her book here.

I went to New York for Spring Break (which I was featured on Women’s Wear Daily for), and as I sat on the bed in my hotel room, I looked over to my friend Kelly and said, “I wish we didn’t have to leave. Lord knows when I will return to this place.” Kelly smiled at me and said, “Kristin, check your email.” Sure enough, God had a funny sense of humor. I had been selected as one of the top journalism students in my university (along with Kelly) to take part in a week-long trip to New York. More on this later!

I became Editorial Assistant/Online Editorial Intern at Darling Magazine, where I worked with some of the most gracious people—and made some wonderful friends in the other interns I met there. This led me to the most exciting summer of my life thus far. My first summer in LA led to endless adventures around Los Angeles—whether to visit museums, go to private film screenings/premieres or interview subjects making a difference in STEM education, the UN, or in television costume design.

My summer concluded with the NY student media tour I had mentioned earlier. Fellow students and I experienced the allure of summertime in the city, walking the concrete jungle in our professional attire as we headed to exclusive, tours, lunches and private broadcast sit-ins of some of the top news companies in the United States. Our experiences included:

-A private tour of CNN New York with CNN journalist and anchor, Bill Weir, followed by a private lunch.

-A private tour of Bloomberg New York and exclusive sit-ins on the company’s editorial meeting as well as the live broadcast of Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene.

-A private tour of NBC News in New York with NBC New York host, Stefan Holt

-A private lunch with New York Women in Communications Inc in New York. Some of the ladies in attendance were executives from Conde Nast, Time Inc. and L’Oréal.

-A private tour of Time Inc. Students had the opportunity to test out Life VR’s equipment, sit in on the broadcast of PeopleNow and take part in an exclusive round table discussion with Time Magazine’s Creative Director D.W. Pine.

-A private tour of Times Union Newspaper in Albany, New York and lunch with former The Washington Post Editor, Harry Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld gave insight on the world of journalism through the lens of his experience as Editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate Scandal.

Coming back from that inspiring trip, I started working for E! News as their Fashion Editorial Intern. I wrote 10+ articles about the intersection of fashion/beauty and celebrity lifestyle for E! Online  including a story on Meghan Markle’s style evolution, a couple best dressed lists and shoppable celebrity looks. But I wasn’t just behind a desk all day! I even had the chance to model a couple times for our beauty shoots and assist an on location celebrity makeup artist video shoot.

I became Vice President of Pepperdine University’s Student Alumni Organization, where I currently correspond with Pepperdine’s Alumni to connect with students and attend networking events.

I accepted the ACP Pacemaker Award mentioned earlier while at a ACP/CMA Media Convention in Dallas. Here I also had the opportunity to speak on a panel discussing how to run a digital first newsroom.

But most importantly, I have been surrounded by a supportive family and the most authentic, meaningful friendships along the way. Success is a blessing to me, especially being an overachiever, but success means nothing unless you are healthy, joyful and involved in actively positive relationships with friends and family. Those blessings themselves made 2017 all worth it.

Going into 2018, I have a lot of unknowns. I also have many plans. And let me tell you the excitement and scariness of it all excites me. I’m graduating from college, I’m going to Italy for the summer and who knows what else? You’ll just have to wait and see on the blog. One thing I can tell you, I plan on “Keeping it Krischic” along the way.

What was your biggest 2017 blessing?

Keeping it Krischic,

Kristin Vartan

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