Seva Magazine Moves Online

This December, Harvard student-run service publication Seva will release its first e-issue.

Seva, which is derived from the Hindi word for service, is a six-year-old student magazine typically featuring articles written by Harvard students about their experiences volunteering abroad.

Although Seva has produced a physical magazine for the last six years, their December 2012 issue will be the first time the magazine is released exclusively online. According to Editors-in-Chief Chelsea F. Carlson ’13 and Lynn Shi ’13, the deciding factor was efficiency.

“It’s easier for people to access, it’s greener, and it’s cheaper,” said Carlson.

Carlson adds that “the website will allow future boards room to grow” and that the organization may develop a volunteering blog in the future.

The December edition of Seva will feature profiles of students’ experiences abroad, explaining how they discovered those opportunities, and offering advice for how readers can do the same.

According to Carlson, the online format has generated much interest, and many students have expressed a desire to share their experiences through the new medium.

Seva distinguishes itself from the Study Abroad catalogues distributed by the college yearly because, according to Carlson and Shi, part of the organization’s objective is to facilitate deeper discussions about what it means to live abroad and engage in meaningful service.

According to Carlson and Shi, the magazine seeks to “expand Harvard students’ horizons and help them to think in complex ways about what it means to do service abroad and how they can use their experiences to impact what they do here at Harvard.”

“For me, I’m white, 21 years old, coming from Harvard with an elite education,” Carlson said. “I want students to think about how service affects their studies, career and doing service in the future.”