Before We Begin // A Personal Note:
I thoroughly enjoyed this course with every fiber of my being. It was inspiring and free and fun and hard and frustrating and sooo satisfying. It truly opened my eyes to what I am capable of creating when I invest quality time alone with my education. I’ve spent hours listening to lectures and reading academic journals..definitely learning good things and researching my butt off. But this semester in com 210 it was different.
I was able to put music on in my headphones and just go for it. School is not easy for me. Ever. I get distracted easily and lose my focus entirely sometimes. I have NEVER listened to music while doing school work. Literally, never. I can’t.
I realized that by letting myself go wild, just a little bit, I found balance. I had confidence in my school work. Something that I haven’t necessarily felt before.
This class became easy for me. I say it’s because for the first time ever, in my college career, a change happened.
All the silly day dreams and big ideas I have, the ones pinging around in my brain all day, the ones that would normally distract me- they were finally given direction and my creativity served my education.
And that is suuuuch a vibe.
And such a good feeling.
FAREWELL COM 210!!
I cannot wait to see what else my future holds and I cannot wait to fill my brain with the knowledge that will carry me through to the end. This is the end of the semester but it is the beginning of a great, great, great, tremendous, fabulous, awesome, love filled life! Cheers🥂
With Love,
This is Emily, for Com. 210 💕
Reflection Post Questionnaire:
What was your favorite project(s) during the semester? Please explain why.
My favorite project during the semester for com210 was definitely the audio and video projects. I really enjoyed using/learning Photoshop and Illustrator and all of the other Adobe programs! But.. I have to say..I really enjoyed the research and commitment involved in the audio/video stories. It was also so cool to make an audio story that sounded similar to the podcasts that I love and listen to everyday. I admire those journalists that I listen to but definitely have a new found respect for the process as a whole.
What skills did you learn in the course that you believe you will use in the future?
I feel like I will literally use all of the skills that I learned in this course in the future.
Everything I learned in this course allows me to go the extra mile for content creation. This semester I used the skills from this class to create multiple different visual aid presentations in other classes. The best was a visual aid for com 102 called, “What Would Beyonce Do?”- a campaign against bullying. I made memes of Bey using Illustrator and Photoshop and used Premiere Pro to add video/audio and music to my speech presentation. I have also used this knowledge of Adobe programs to create presentations at my internship and I made some flyers for my dad! I would love to start making/creating more quality content….. just for fun. 🙂
What coursework or career path do you see in your future? What skills or projects from this class may be influential in your chosen career path?
The audio and video story projects made a huge impression on me.
I don’t know how but I completely forgot that my dad went to Berkeley and studied radio broadcasting for a while he was there. During the process, while I was collecting footage and making those projects come to life I was able to connect with him and talk about techniques and other aspects of radio journalism that influence the story. As well as how both parties creativity and the unexpected change the dynamics of conversation and the overall narrative itself. I definitely think that the audio project could impact my future and possibly change what my career ends up being. I think I could totally dive into radio journalism and I would have a blast doing it. Also, I kind of think I have a unique voice for it! Radio broadcasting is such a vibe. Obviously, Sarah Vowell wins for unique voices in radio but it’s not all about that speech. She is one of my favorite authors and her ability to analyze, question and present the narrative always just slays me. She’s funny but respected. I like that. It’s the way she delivers the stories she writes and reads them specifically and changes the way the audience sees/hears things. I would love to go full fledged journalism and be good enough to be in the big leagues; like This American life, Serial or S•Town. So watch out Ira!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-american-life/id201671138
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/serial/id917918570?mt=2
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/s-town/id1212558767?mt=2
Is there any skill that you wished you would have learned in this course that you did not learn? If yes, what skill is that?
Actually there is a skill I would have liked to have explored this semester. I would really like to learn about creating a website(Squarespace, etc) and this class seems like it could introduce those skills. However, the course as is requires a lot of attention to detail and time; not that there is too heavy a workload but the workload definitely requires 100% focus. So, I don’t know how my dreams of learning website creation would fit into the established curriculum for com 210.
Did you find any websites or resources from outside the class material that were especially useful?
The only resource outside of class material that was useful and that I used for the course was Unsplash.
Unsplash by Unsplash Inc: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/unsplash/id1290631746
Emily Steinhilber 
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