Meet Juliana Bonovich, a junior in the college from California majoring in English and Creative Writing. In addition to being President of The Pulse, Juliana is a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and works in the Office of Technology and Bookstore Relations. Read on to learn more about Juliana and find out what The Pulse is all about!
HCE (Her Campus Emory): What is The Pulse?
Juliana Bonovich (JB): The Pulse is an organization with two main parts: a published anthology and events. It seeks to connect students across campus through the arts, to support the arts, and to encourage students to appreciate and practice the arts, no matter their major or career path. Our anthology is published every Spring semester and includes written and visual arts (we are accepting submissions now, guidelines are on Facebook or our website). Beyond the anthology, we host a variety of events. Last year, The Pulse hosted our first big event: Symposium, a performance arts event with a visual art gallery hosted by and in collaboration with the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. Since then, we have hosted BPM with the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, one more Symposium with ATO, pop up spray painting in Asbury Circle, The Peacock Gallery with MLAO and the Emory Arts Club, the new Rock the Row music series (which started this past Friday), and more!
Photograph of Symposium last Fall
HCE: How did you get involved with The Pulse?
JB: I actually only became involved last year—it’s kind of a funny story! The spring of my first year at Emory I was published in the anthology, so the following fall I was invited to read a few poems at The Pulse’s first GBM of the semester. After I read my poems, I decided to stay for the meeting—partially because I thought it would be kind of awkward if I left. I found out that The Pulse was looking for someone to be their first Events Coordinator, and I was just beginning to become interested in events planning as assistant social chair for my sorority, so I approached Dana Sokolowski (last year’s president) about it. She was excited that I was excited, so I joined The Pulse. A couple weeks later, Dana told me about an idea she had been discussing with a member of ATO (Oliver Paprin): the idea of Symposium. I said it sounded amazing, and dove headfirst into planning with her and Oliver. By the second semester of last year, I had become incredibly invested in and involved with The Pulse—it was kind of crazy! I became president as Dana prepared for graduation. The Pulse changed my college experience, and I’m so lucky everything happened the way it did.
HCE: You also live in the MLAO (Media, Literature and Arts Outreach) house, can you tell me a little bit about that and how it relates to The Pulse?
JB: Yes! I am the RA and one of the Co-Leads of the house with Nick Bowman (who is Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Spoke). When the application for themed housing was released in late April of second semester last year, Nick emailed Media Council (which involves all media organizations at Emory) to see if anyone would be interested in applying for a Media house. As I was an SA in Longstreet at the time and thus had some experience with Residence Life, I jumped on board and largely lead the application for the house, expanding it to include Literature and the Arts. As I became involved with The Pulse, I saw the necessity for a united arts space on campus, especially due to cuts to the Journalism and Visual Arts departments (and because Emory has been declared the best school for writers in the nation). All of The Pulse’s events were well received, as were events of many other performance, written, and visual arts organizations, but there wasn’t a central space that was easy to get to on campus where these organizations could host events, hold GBMs, or collaborate. Though the house is a Residence Hall, it is space is open to everyone! You can reserve rooms for events, but you can also just reserve a room for yourself to paint/draw/write. We also host a variety of events from other organizations (including The Pulse, Emory Arts Club, Artisan Guild, and more), like us on Facebook to stay updated on events, reserve a room, see our calendar, or to learn more about us!
HCE: What’s your favorite thing about The Pulse?
JB: My favorite thing is definitely the community; it is so full of passionate and creative people. I love seeing people want to get involved and be a part of the events that we put on. Plus, I have made friends I will treasure forever through The Pulse and our events, and I am so thankful for them!
HCE: How can students keep up with The Pulse? (social media, etc.)
JB: You should like us on Facebook and/or check out our calendar to stay updated about events, anthology publication, and more—also, stickers are going to be released soon, designed by our Art Director Tessa Goetz! We also just started an Instagram, @theemorypulse. Additionally, we have a website that tells more about who we are and what we do. We are starting a blog portion on our site, so if you’re interested in publishing any online content about the arts at Emory, Atlanta, or nationwide (i.e. musicians on or off campus, graffiti artists, museums, really anything you can think of) contact our Web Director Julia Munslow at julia.munslow@emory.edu. Also if you are interested in getting involved with The Pulse, email me at jbonovi@emory.edu!