Mormon Insights is published by students in the capstone course of the editing minor at Brigham Young University (BYU). Every member of the Fall 2015 Mormon Insights staff (above) assisted with planning, writing, editing, and designing articles; publishing them on the Internet; and promoting them through social media.
Photos by Lauren Koford.
Alison Brimley
Major and minor: English major, editing minor
Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah
Staff positions: Assistant Managing Editor, Design Team Assistant Director, Assistant Pinterest Manager
Personal motto: If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.
What must you always have on your person? Lotion.
Do you speak any foreign languages? I speak a little bit of Hebrew.
Amy Davis
Major and minor: English major, editing minor
Hometown: Woodbury, Minnesota
Staff positions: Associate Editor, Pinterest Manager, Web Team Member, PR/Analytics Team Member
Dream job: A high school English teacher—I love working with teenagers!
Unique hobbies: Netflix binging with my husband. I also have a strangely extensive knowledge of Harry Potter trivia. Ask me anything.
One item on your bucket list: Meet J.K. Rowling. I think I would actually pass out and die.
Nicole Day Olson
Major and minor: English major, editing minor, and a Spanish certificate
Hometown: Boise, Idaho
Staff positions: Copyeditor, Translation Team Director, Instagram Director, Design Team Member
Career Goals: Continue editing by freelancing from home so I can be a mother.
Favorite part of editing: Knowing that important ideas and creative messages have more credibility and have a better chance of spreading because I helped the author fine-tune their work.
Personal motto: Be positive and happy; when stress ceases to function as a motivator, start thinking less about yourself and more about others.
Camden Hardy
Major and minor: English major, editing minor
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Staff positions: Art Director, Associate Editor, Instagram Assistant Manager
Dream job: Marriage and Family Therapist
Most memorable thing you’ve done in the past year: A trip to Kampala, Uganda
Unique hobbies: Watercolor, making friendship bracelets, and reading mom blogs.
Personal motto: Kindness is always the best choice.
Jennifer Johnson
Major and minor: Communications major (print-journalism emphasis), editing minor
Hometown: Manti, Utah
Staff positions: Copyeditor, Social Media Director, Design Team Member, PR/Analytics Team Member
One item on your bucket list: Go to Rio de Janeiro
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? I’m left-handed, and we all know left-handers are discriminated against.
Favorite band/singer/group? Dashboard Confessional forever
Jenna Koford
Major and minor: Communications major, editing minor
Hometown: Temecula, California
Staff position: Managing Editor
Dream job: Be a judge on the singing television show The Voice. (Or be a mother and edit for a big-name magazine.)
Personal motto: Gratitude changes everything.
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? I had upper and lower jaw surgery when I was 18—my mouth was wired shut for three months!
Tacy LeBaron
Major and minor: Neuroscience major, editing minor
Hometown: Highland, Utah
Staff positions: PR/Analytics Assistant Manager, Associate Editor, Facebook Assistant Manager, Design Team Member
Dream job: Psychiatric Physician’s Assistant
One item on your bucket list: I want to play my cello on the Galapagos Islands.
Do you speak any foreign languages? I speak Malay.
Sarah Martin
Major and minor: Journalism major, editing minor
Hometown: Corona, California
Staff positions: PR/Analytics Director, Assistant Web Director, Associate Editor
Dream job: Travel the world interviewing strangers and eating lots of chocolate.
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? I don’t know what superhero I’d be, but if I could pick a superpower, I’d want to be able to really step into people’s shoes and understand their point of view perfectly.
Do you speak any foreign languages? Only Harry Potter.
Annalisa Olivieri
Major and minor: English major, editing minor
Hometown: Pesaro, Italy
Staff positions: Associate Editor, Web Team Member, Twitter Manager, Assistant Translation Director
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Becoming a member of the LDS church. It was the best decision I have made in my life but the hardest to go through.
What is your perfect pizza? Italian. (If you don’t believe me, go to Italy and try one.)
Do you speak any foreign languages? My mother tongue is Italian; English is actually the foreign language for me. I also speak a little French and Spanish, and I’ll start to study Japanese soon.
Erin Steenblik Tanner
Major and minor: English major, editing minor
Hometown: Spokane, Washington
Staff positions: Associate Editor, Web Director
Dream job: Full-time book reviewer.
Personal motto: Never ignore the impulse to be generous.
One item on your bucket list: See a Shakespeare play performed at the Globe Theater.
Leah Welker
Major and minors: English language major, editing and Modern Hebrew minors
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Staff positions: Assistant Managing Editor, Assistant Facebook Manager, Web Team Member, PR/Analytics Team Member
Favorite quote: “Go forward in life with a smile on your face, a sparkle in your eyes, and with great and strong purpose in your heart.” —Gordon B. Hinckley
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? Jane Austen.
One item on your bucket list: Visit the Holy Land.
Shanna D’Avila
Major and minor: English language major, editing minor
Hometown: Provo, Utah
Staff position: Teaching Assistant
Dream job: Freelance editor/designer with an elaborate at-home office always stocked with ice cream
What is something hard that you’ve had to do in your life? Be an adult. It has its perks, though.
If you could have dinner with any person (living or dead, real or imagined), who would it be? My husband. (I do get to have dinner with him every night, but I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else.)
Katie Hollingsworth
Major and minor: English major; art history, editing, and music minors
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Staff position: Art Advisor
Dream job: Cat whisperer
Favorite Mormon Insights article or topic? “To Beard or Not to Beard? The Question on Latter-day Saint Faces” is such a historically interesting article!
If you could be any superhero, who would you be? Wonder Woman
Marvin K. Gardner
Staff position: Editor in Chief
Position at BYU: Teaching Professor, Department of Linguistics and English Language, College of Humanities
Current favorite quote: “The pure love of Christ can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees us: as flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and worth far beyond our capacity to imagine.” —President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Photos by Lauren Koford.