I can’t even begin to explain how much A&I has been one of my favorite parts of FLA! I’m Rui and I’m part of the newsletter team that’s in the A&I committee and it’s an experience that I wouldn’t forget in college as cheesy as it sounds.

My main responsibility on the team is to help come up with the creative design and brainstorm the newsletter layouts. Personally, I work directly with Jenna (aka my other half / partner in crime to the creative design aspect) and I don’t think I would’ve ever met her if we weren’t both on the project together. Honestly, my favorite part about the design process is seeing our work develop from ideas and turn into reality. Last summer, the whole team had a meeting where we pitched our ideas for the newsletter and selected the aspects we liked from each person’s pitch. Jenna and I started brainstorming a theme and bounced layouts off each other. Then, with hours on zoom, we came up with the overall skeleton and now, it’s the newsletter you see in your emails on Thursdays!

I think being on the newsletter team really helps you professionally improve flexibility. In times where we were incredibly busy, we really came together with clear communication and an all-around understanding environment. I still remember when it was exam week and we all were extremely stressed with our respective schedules, but we made it through the week with communication through our group chat and phone calls. There’s a balance of flexibility with our schedules that we are all learning and being part of the newsletter team really helps you hone it!

While being on the committee, I also grew a lot personally with how the committee really promotes collaborating and improving with feedback from other projects. Our director, Homar, is an amazing leader and is a promoter of collaboration and hearing out new ideas; he is one of our biggest supporters. Also, the people makes A&I an incredible environment to contribute in since everyone is super friendly and approachable for feedback and help. I truly love the way our committee works as an overall collective unit because there’s something fantastical and amazing about being surrounded by people that are as passionate as you.

What I am just trying to say is that through A&I, you will just get an experience like no other with the skills you improve on and the people you will surround yourself with! Or in other words, A&I is just a place where we promote innovation that… excites!