Hi! I’m Ash, I am your Editor-in-Chief, though formally Print & Features editor, for this year. I can almost guarantee if you don’t know my face, you probably have seen my name around, usually filling a little space in a feature when there’s space to fill, or maybe commandeering the Announcements tab on the WhatsApp hub, or if you’re particularly observant you’ll know that I am also one of the TV editors for the paper this year. 

To introduce myself a bit, I’m currently a second-year student studying Digital Media and Communications. I have been writing for Redbrick ever since I started at the University of Birmingham, though I have only been a part of committee since the beginning of this academic year. I have edited so many of these fabulous editorial letters already this year, every single person writing so eloquently about their experiences, and yet I am still completely lost as to how to express my gratitude to Redbrick in words. 

I never expected on my first week of university that Redbrick would become such a vital part of my Birmingham experience. I claimed a Heartstopper Season Two review in my first week of first year expecting that to pretty much sum up my extra-curricular repertoire. I definitely didn’t expect that review to make it into the first print issue of the year, nor did I expect that to spark the most intense passion I’ve ever had for something outside of grades and academia. 

I became a Culture editor in the December of 2023, where I worked with an incredible team of people, and absolutely fell in love with the paper beyond writing for it. I had the chance to see 2:22: A Ghost Story for a press night, which was insane to me, and I started to believe that journalism could be my calling. This is also where I met Vidhi, one of the Digital Editors this year. It has been an absolute blessing having a friend to go through this experience with, because it really makes the entire experience feel so much more like a community. 

Redbrick really is a community. While there haven’t been many opportunities for the society to meet face to face over my time here, I have still found friendships in the most unlikely places. I think that’s what I like so much about Redbrick – there isn’t a requirement to meet. As an introvert, it has been a great opportunity to transition into the social side of university. There is absolutely no pressure to get involved outside of holing myself up in my bedroom, ranting about my intense dislike for Loki. 

Redbrick helped push me out of my comfort zone as I became part of committee, and ultimately the experience has helped develop my confidence greatly. I was surrounded with such an overwhelmingly supportive group of people, all of which had my back every time I started shaking at the anxiety of being a part of a meeting or sitting on the welcome stall at the Societies Fair in Fresher’s Week. 

In a way I do feel like that dingy little office in the bottom of the Guild has both become a new home and the place I will lose my mind. I have seen those four walls more than my own bedroom over the past six months and have spent so much of that time feeling my eyes go square as I attempt to line up a text box with the column guidelines on InDesign. There have been so many memories made though, from the playlist made to accompany committee checks, to that one Sunday back in November where we were so deep in corrections, we hadn’t realised the Guild had closed around us. 

Redbrick has given me so many opportunities outside of the gates of UoB too. From being approached personally, being asked to review a Digbeth indie night, where I befriended the promotors and the artists and found my name being thrown around the music scene as a good journo for upcoming artists; to being headhunted for a paid content ambassador and author position for a nation-wide Student Voices blog. Redbrick has offered me so much and has had a key part in my personal development over the past two years. 

I am so proud of the paper, of the people who work on it and so thankful for those of you who read it. This experience would be absolutely nothing without all of you. So, as I finish this letter, hoping I have expressed how important Redbrick is and could be, I hope that you continue reading. And if you are picking up a copy for the first time, with any inkling of interest in writing, I urge and encourage you to join our community. I hope that Redbrick can give as much to you as it has given me. 

Ash x

If you enjoyed this editorial, check out the rest of this year’s letters below:

Issue 1536: A Letter from the Deputy Editors

Letter 1535: A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief