If there was a contest for the best-dressed staff member, Multimedia Manager Thea Barrows would win. Planning on going to the University of Wisconsin-Stout for apparel design next year, her style drew her to lead the multimedia team. She became involved in multimedia junior year because of her video-editing experience from her cosplaying hobby. “My sisters and I dressed up and made TikToks throughout COVID-19, so I was like, ‘I edit videos for my sisters so I could eat [multimedia] up!’ and it’s been fun!” she said. 

After seeing a recruitment presentation in her freshman English class and wanting to prove to herself she could get in, Thea joined Zephyrus as a writer. “For me, it was just something to cross off my bucket list, but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought,” Thea said. “I have so much fun talking to people about less serious things because it doesn’t always have to be so serious.” Zephyrus also helped improve her with time management and being more assertive asking for interviews. “It’s not a no until you hear a no,” she said.

Beyond school, she loves synchronized swimming, sailing, and room decoration. “I have a lot of wall space,” Thea said. “I love to paint something and be like, ‘It’s [awful]’ and then put it up on my wall like ‘I love it!’” Her favorite class is AP U.S. History. “It wasn’t just random white guys from 200 years ago; it was gossip,” she said. “We watched a ‘Hamilton’ animatic and it brought the whole world together.” Also, she is not a fan of Snapchat. “Why do you send pictures of your forehead back and forth to people?” she asked. “I joined it once and people that I had never even spoken to added me. I was like, ‘I don’t even know you, stop sending me pictures of yourself.’ It just feels so disingenuous.” 

“Zephyrus was always something that I could look forward to,” she said. “I will never regret joining. Do you want to throw in a sentence about how Aditya is lame?”

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on May 24, 2024