I wish you could have been a fly on the wall in the Magazine offices this past summer. For the first time since before the pandemic, two students from the College joined us as full-time Metcalf interns. They are Californian Rory McGann, Class of 2025, and North Carolina native Shiloh Miller, Class of 2026. Intergenerational side-eye is a fact of our world, as it probably ever was. But Rory and Shiloh swooped in and showed us the kids are much more than all right.

The two are true polymaths: a molecular engineering major who is minoring in the humanistic fields of science communication and theater (Rory) and a creative writing and cognitive science double major (Shiloh). Both are razor-sharp with unlimited curiosity. That combined with their deep interest in a print-first publication made all of the Magazine editors feel bullish about the future of a profession many of us chose long ago.

If you aren’t familiar with the Jeff Metcalf Internship Program, it offers meaningful paid internships and micro-internships that are earmarked for UChicago undergraduates. Metcalf employers, who now number more than a thousand, include Sotheby’s, Goldman Sachs, and the Smithsonian. The Magazine was one of the inaugural employers back in 1997, the program’s first year. Since then the program has grown to offer more than 4,000 opportunities.

This summer Rory and Shiloh edited copy, pitched stories, brought order to our archives, and got to know our colleagues across Alumni Relations and Development communications. They inspired us daily and started small traditions that have survived their time here, like the playlists, reading lists, and weekly flash polls (Star Wars or Star Trek? Beatles or Stones?) they installed on our office’s whiteboard walls.

Now they are off on other adventures (Shiloh will be with us again part time during Autumn Quarter, however), and our lives are a little more beige. In this issue you’ll find their first bylined pieces: two Quick Study research briefs and Shiloh’s W. R. Harper’s Index. Additional fruits of their work this summer will appear in the Winter/25 Magazine, so look out for more of Rory’s and Shiloh’s fresh voices in January.