LEAD

The beginning...

Rewind back to early Spring of 2009, in the midst of long final exam nights and daydreaming. Tashween Ali Editor-in-chief looks up at Emanuel Alvarez Creative Director and says, We are going to start a magazine. Soon after, a small team of University of Michigan students form who share a passion for this magazine called LEAD. After a spontaneous Friday night photo shoot, Kathryn Thostenson Editorial Director is on (the) board. The summer months are spent in Ann Arbor developing the concept, the design, the vision, the organization of the organization, and all the little bothersome details that only entrepreneurs ever encounter. By the 2009 fall semester, LEAD is a publication worthy to follow its freshly recruited, inspired student team.

What inspires us every day...

LEAD Magazine's most valued purpose is to present the stories of the University of Michigan's (U-M) leaders at best. This grows from awareness that our student peers are ridiculously ambitious, innovative, genuine, and repeatedly shock us more than the students we met yesterday. We dig into the story behind that person who sits next to us in class and the story behind the President of That-Wildly-Popular-and-Notable-Student-Organization.

Undergrad and grad students at the University of Michigan are our inspiration and our audience. While presenting these stories, LEAD aims to reflect the interests of college students. We commit to visually appealing content, wit, and sensibility in order to uncover the urban, adventurous, yet accessible campus lifestyle our readers aspire to Lead.

The future...

The LEAD team is currently comprised of three staffs (Business, Creative, and Editorial) totaling forty-odd members - all students. Our efforts are directed at eventually publishing an online issue each month, preceded by enthusiastic viral publicity campaigns, and followed by new approaches to conventional content. First complete issue: 12.7.2009.