El Estoque: What were La Pluma’s major events throughout this year?
Shruti Shankar: In the beginning of the year, we had a few creative writing projects and […] we did [two] college essay workshop for the seniors around the time college [applications] were due (especially for the common apps for the UCs). Every other month we had our S&Ss, [monthly issues], which were normal. We also published our final issue, or annual issue, in February. Then we had Coffeehouse in April. Now that [those events] have died down, it’s more of end of the year stuff like tying up loose ends, passing on responsibilities and those kind of things.

EE: What are some improvements that Lu Pluma will include for next year?
SS: For us, the biggest thing was timing. For our college essay workshops, there was a conflict because of an IDC rally going on that day. For next year, we will have to figure that out. Also, for Coffeehouse this year a lot of clubs were doing huge events on the same day as us. So we had to work around that and it was a little annoying.

EE: What are some events that you will be keeping for next year?
SS: I think we’ll be keeping everything we did this year. Coffeehouse is our main source of income but we will probably be doing more college essay workshops at different times. We will probably follow the same thing: one in the beginning of the college essay process and one towards the end. We are probably going to have more creative writing workshops because this year we only had two; we also didn’t have enough time to promo them.

EE: What can students do this year if they want to be more involved in La Pluma in the future?
SS: Most of our staff is graduating this year, so you should look out for the application because you can totally apply to be a staff member. We are looking to replace about 10 people. Also, look out towards the beginning of the year for college essay or creative writing workshops.

If you are interested or want more information on La Pluma, visit their website lapluma.org/about or email them at [email protected].