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The Experience
Welcome to The Experience collection.
Please click the image thumbnail below to see all available issues in the collection.
In the Fall of 1967, Florida Junior College – then only a year old – published its first literary magazine, Reason ’67. Nineteen pages long, Reason included student art and poetry and accepted contributions from other schools in the southeast, but it lasted only a single issue before its faculty advisor, Monett Powers, stepped down. Marilyn DeSimone, finishing out her first term teaching at FJC, stepped in as faculty advisor, a position she would go on to hold for more than two decades. When DeSimone met with the magazine’s staff (comprised of M.D. Kervin, Audrey Randolph, Jack Joyner, Gail Leewright, Roberta Butler, Charlie Daniel, Jon Grinter, Sunny Prevatt, and Bob Knapp), the students decided they wanted a fresh start and a new name for their publishing endeavor. A contest yielded the magazine’s new title: The Experience. The first issue, printed in the Fall of 1968, opened with a quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”: “I am a part of all I have met.”
Though it started at a slim twenty pages, The Experience burgeoned with student poetry, short stories, sketching, and oils, and by 1975 had grown to over sixty pages in length. In 1988, it began accepting submissions of student photography. The following year saw a delay in publishing when the magazine, which had no budget of its own and had been supported variously by the Director of Public Affairs and Student Activities, was not allocated funding, and thereafter the publication became annual. It remains in publication today, a student literary and artistic tradition now over fifty years old.
The Experience was written and edited by students of Florida State College at Jacksonville (Florida Junior College) and they are solely responsible for its editorial policy and content. The views, information, or opinions expressed are solely those of individuals involved and do not necessarily reflect the views of other students, staff members, faculty, or administration of Florida State College at Jacksonville. FSCJ is not responsible and does not verify for accuracy any of the information contained in this publication.
