Ladies, and gentlemen, I give you our fearless male staffer, Josh Kiger! Josh has been with Her Campus MU Ohio since it’s founding here in August of 2011, and he has been nothing but an asset to our amazing team. Josh is currently working on his masters here at Miami and always brings that much needed male perspective to our publications. We decided to talk to Josh and get the scoop on why he loves being a part of this female-geared publication.
Name: Josh Kiger
Year: 1st year Masters
Hometown: East Liverpool, Ohio
Major: Early American History
Minor: Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Hobbies: Playing tennis, planning weddings, & volunteering at the Humane Society
Fun Fact: I love milk.
Favorite thing about Spring Semester: sunshine but cool breezes when I’m leaving class/work
HC: You are currently a graduate student here at Miami. What are some of the things you do, and what are your plans for the future?
JK: I do a lot actually. In addition to being a section editor with Her Campus, I’m a graduate assistant director at the Howe Writing Center, I’m the communications associate with the Miami Humanities Center, I do archive work for the former Miami-Oxford chapter of the National Organization for Women, AND I am on the executive council of the Graduate School Association.
HC: What inspired you to become a part of this Her Campus Miami?
JK: Two things. President and co-founder, Alaine Perconti, is a close friend and asked me to think about joining and I didn’t give it a second thought. Two, as I got further away from my Creative Writing roots (my first Bach. Degree) and more into History, I didn’t have as many chances to express myself through writing as I’d hoped. Her Campus definitely gave me the opportunity to connect with others in the way that I’d wanted. It also didn’t hurt that I was going to be the only guy on staff and it was cool being the other perspective on a lot of the material we publish.
HC: Could you tell us a little about what you do as a Section Editor and why you like doing it?
JK: There are two section editors and we each have teams. My job is to assign stories to my team members, to help them in any way I can whether it be with Her Campus in general or with an assigned story, and obviously, I am the one editing my team’s articles once they’ve been written. I love being a section editor mostly because I can use my experience to help others while still being able to write. I can connect with my team in that I am in the same boat as them in that I want to give my all to Her Campus while trying to balance a hectic schedule otherwise, and I think that makes me a good leader. Those leaders who don’t do the same work as their team and can’t relate aren’t very good leaders at all.
HC: You are the only male on staff for Her Campus, what is it like working with a group of girls?
JK: I absolutely love it. And not in the stereotypical, I’m a guy and I just loveeee women sort of way. I like working with women because they work together better, there’s less butting of heads. We can meet and get things done, and there’s often more feeling in the writing. In a publication like Her Campus, there’s an audience with expectations that I think women are better equipped to meet. Not to dis my fellow men, but sometimes I think women care more about what they write, and have a more defined passion for the work. It’s not always just about getting the article written, it’s about getting it written well for those who will be reading it. I work with great young women and I couldn’t ask for better team members.
HC: What are some of the male qualities you try to bring to a magazine for women?
JK: Well, though our target audience is college women, I like to think college men read Her Campus too. In that mind set, my position as a male editor allows me to make sure each article isn’t too biased towards one audience. We use Collegiette and other words like that, but dropping a ton of brand names and making everything entirely alien toward the general male population could work against us at times. I can use my strong familiarity with girl topics, combined with my knowledge of male-oriented content to give a broader perspective. We also now and again have a Real Miami Guy Explains blog, which allows me to discuss topics related to women from a male perspective. They don’t always go over as well as other stories, but I like to think they’re definitely interesting.