Creative Multimedia Journalism

End of Spring ’12 Semester

 

Being that this was the semester that I proposed my major, the crystallization of my goals was a key focus for me. Besides the personal declaration of my life ambition, I was also confronted with a rather daunting proposition. I applied for a full year of study abroad and was accepted to both programs in Ireland and Australia. My initial wild blithe was soon quelled by the reality of how much it would cost me. So far, I was debt free because of my tuition remission, but I would need to either take out a loan or choose between the two programs. Many times leading up to this I have made compromises with my aspirations. And I also suffer from extreme frugality. But the opportunities that now dangled just outside the door, the experience of living in Ireland and Australia – enriching my life and bolstering my knowledge and confidence – these once-in-a-lifetime chances outweighed whatever trepidations I had. And I committed. The proclamations and commitments of this past semester have been important in the sense that it verified who I am and where I want to be as a person.

 

I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with the marketing department at Fairfield University as a photographer. I have literally skipped to jobs on occasion. Though not entirely what I hope to one day do, this is still photography. And besides that, it is also an opportunity to grow accustomed to meeting and sometimes directing basically strangers. I have quite a bit of experience with such activities as a journalist, but there is a different kind of imposition with the camera. The absolutism of the single moment captured in the frame, it is a fragile and fleeting object. I can only hope that such experiences will allow me to better capture the moments I wish to share with the world.I have also been meeting with the “Anthropology Tribe” at Fairfield and am getting involved in the creation of a foundation for a fledging program. I hope to continue to be involved as a graphic designer (for T-shirts) and hopefully editor for a journal we wish to publish. The editorial position has exiting potential both as a creative outlet and outreach tool for education and connection.

 

I am (of course) extremely happy with my IDM proposal acceptance as well as my study abroad acceptances. I was also happy with the spring production PFC performed. I was challenged with the portrayal of a mute artist and the feedback I received was flattering and supportive. I was less than ecstatic with my HI30 class as a whole. Although it is not a part of my major, I still feel that history is a very important part of what I was to do, as a tool for investigation and speculation. I also worked very hard on what I was given to work on, I wrote a paper on the feminist movement in the sixties that took me two weeks to compile. I never found out how it panned out, and I wish I could have received feedback on it.

 

I plan on taking the summer to find scholarships and apply for them with the free time I have in between my jobs. I also plan to seek out contests in photography and perhaps writing as well; hopefully I can receive feedback in this way. Although I do not have money for conferences right now, I do intend to actively seek out job opportunities that will fortify and develop useful skills to photojournalism. What are you doing right now to help you to achieve these goals? What are you not yet doing that you could be doing?Right now I am continuing my work for the school and writing scholarship entries.What I can and should start is to more aggressively pursue jobs and start preparing for internship applications. There are two National Geographic internships I want to apply for and as they are highly competitive I want to have both my feet looking spectacular to put forward.