With 27% of students hailing from aboard, McGill University has one of the most vibrant communities of international students in the world. Walking through the Y-Intersection, you might encounter a person from every continent, each with a unique perspective on life. Today, I sit down with Alec Regino, a U2 student from the Philippines, who is studying History and Sociology. Alec currently serves as one of the editors for the McGill International Review, a publication that has had a positive influence on his life.
Anna Qiu for Her Campus McGill: What inspired you to join the McGill International Review?
Alec Regino: During my first year, I spent a lot of time doing freelance writing. For example, I was a staff writer for an online publication called The Diplomacist. While I really enjoyed it, one of the things that I really missed out on, because it was an online intercollegiate publication, was the opportunity to meet other people and discuss different viewpoints on different kinds of topics. McGill International Review really gave me the opportunity to meet people who had very nuanced views.
HC McGill: Can you elaborate on that a little more?
AR: So, if I wanted to talk about the conflict between India and Pakistan, the McGill International Review would have writers and editors who are from India and Pakistan and who have an incredible amount of vested interest in that topic. I could learn a lot from other students, which was the main goal for me.
HC McGill: Oh, that’s so cool! So, the International Review really facilitates cross-cultural interactions.
AR: Yeah, I just love learning about different cultures and different issues from all over the world. I feel like, being an international publication and being a part of a university that’s pretty international, gives you the opportunity to learn about new cultures and new communities from their direct perspective. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to leave the Philippines for university, I wanted to expose myself to different cultures and understand where they’re coming from.
HC McGill: You’re an Editor right?
AR: (laughs) Yeah, I’m an Editor.
HC McGill: Can you tell me a little bit about you do?
AR: The editorial team has twenty or so editors and we split them up to head different groups. So, I’m part of a team of sixteen writers and three editors. Every cycle, there are about two cycles per semester, I edit articles for three or four people. Sometimes, I’ll meet up with the writers and talk about their articles in order to guide them and help them adjust. Besides fixing syntax and generic spelling errors, I mostly help build up the arguments that the writers make. Since the McGill International Review is an opinion journal about international topics, we try to bring out the views of the writers and portray it in their vision. Usually, I’ll read through the article and make edits and then offer my opinion about what direction I think they should take. At the end of the day, it’s their article so it’s all at their discretion, but I’m there to give a second opinion about what they’re writing about.
HC McGill: Has anyone ever changed your opinion on a topic?
AR: A lot of what we do is consider different opinions, unlike a lot of publications, we don’t lean left or right necessarily. So, every once in awhile, my opinions will get challenged. For the French election, for example, I thought [Emmanuel] Macron kept the course with neo-liberal policies and while I wrote an article about that, we had other writers write about Macron in a very positive or very negative light. While I’m not sure my opinion has changed on him perse, it’s very interesting to see the different perspectives that come from a single event. We had three articles on the French election and they were all very different from one another.
HC McGill: To finish: what would you say to someone who is thinking about joining the International Review?
AR: Writing for any kind of publication is fun and I would say pretty practical. If you want to expand your views and learn more about different kinds of cultures, I’d recommend joining MIR (McGill International Review) just purely because a lot of what we do is discuss different issues and learn about different countries. In itself, writing for a publication is very useful, I think being a strong a communicator is a good skill to have and being a good writer will benefit just about anyone. Also, everyone’s really cool and joining any club gives you the opportunity to meet new people.
Images obtained from interviewee