Newbury Center Celebrates Launch of 5th Edition of Elevate Magazine
By Maha Uddin
Just last week on March 26, the Newbury Center celebrated the launch of Elevate Magazine, created by and for first generation college students at Boston University. The event was intimate and the audience was full of artists and writers who had graciously contributed to the magazine. It was refreshing to finally put faces to names.
The event was kickstarted by the co-editors of the magazine, Malia Montalvo (COM ‘26) and Yuna Yi (SAR ‘27) who introduced this year’s theme of the magazine which is Resilience. Co-editor Yi said “As first-gen students, we’ve all faced a myriad of challenges that required us to be resilient, even in hard times. We thought this theme was something that would resonate with our Terrier F1RSTS community.”
The cover of the magazine was then revealed for the first time which was selected by the editors from the 2025 Newbury Center Art Contest. Connie Lin’s (SAR ‘29) piece “Ode to Mama” was selected to be the cover of the fifth edition of Elevate.
The floor was then opened up to student contributors who wished to speak on their piece. Many spoke of extremely personal things as it pertained to their pieces. Topics of grief, loss, and perseverance surrounded the air. People choked up and were moved to tears due to the simple act of writers and artists putting down their walls. That day, it was important to be vulnerable and allow others to know the art as well as the artist.
Rising co-editor Jessica Wu (CAS ‘27) said “it was truly inspiring to hear everyone’s stories and travel through their journeys of resilience. I am more than honored to be part of the amazing Elevate magazine team and to celebrate this incredible milestone with my co-editors!”
Executive director of the Newbury Center Maria Erb finished out the event with her own piece and spoke to pertinent issues that affected the first generation community. She emphasized that we are not defined by our struggles but by our resilience and how we overcome them, which is precisely what Elevate Magazine seeks to uplift.