Senior Year

  Hi, blog, the senior year started today, but my first day went poorly. I woke up and had a panic attack which resulted in me getting sick. I did not end up going to school today, but will tomorrow. In other news, I applied and got in to work for my school's basketball team! I will be working with two other girls on the social media team to promote the sporting events. I am very excited to share any content I create with you here. I will be creating graphics, photographing/videoing games, editing content, etc. 

University of Falling

  Hi blog I will be brutally honest in that I did not learn how to use Adobe and it is my last night at the University of Florida's Summer Media Institute. Note that the blog title relates to the fact I probably stopped myself from tripping at least ten times on campus. There is lots of construction going on and a lot of uneven surfaces.

The Experience:

  What is the Summer Media Institute?

  UF SMI is a six-day program where students can learn from UF professionals and outside resources and make connections with other students who are passionate about the journalism and/or communication field. While being at SMI students experience average college-related things such as living in dorms, eating in dining halls, and walking the campus.

  Why did I do SMI?

  I signed up for SMI to step out of my comfort zone. Through AICE Media if you have seen any of my other blog posts you know I mainly worked behind the camera producing, directing, editing, etc. I chose one of eight specialties available, Anchoring and Hosting. Here is the full description of this specialty from the SMI website. "Improve your on-air performance skills. From anchoring newscasts and going live in the field, students will learn new techniques and get to practice and improve their presence and performance. They will also learn the finer points of shooting standups for TV news stories." This too me sounded very interesting!

  How was my SMI specialty experience?

  I really enjoyed the experience of being able to practice reading from a professional teleprompter while sitting at the anchor desk looking professional. For the first time, I do not think I did terribly. We did not go live in the field at all I would not say, but we did shoot an interview and for that got to set up a professional camera. 

  What stood out to me at SMI?

  I had limited expectations going into SMI. I would first say I did not expect to feel in shock at points. For example, I did a sports announcing hour-long class and whilst walking to the studio a band was being recorded in a nearby studio and we stopped in and watched as it was being recorded, This was crazy. Also crazy was the first time I walked into the INC/Innovation News Center. It was nice to see how so many different media specialties are under one roof from WUFT broadcasting to GHQ radio station. 

  Did anything unexpected occur?

  Yes, I knew I was going to enjoy the sports announcing the election, but not as much as I did. From the start of the elective, I knew it was my place to be as the lecturer began to discuss football, my favorite sport. We learned about the sheets with player information and scripts before speaking through one of the scripts. I would say I did a decent job as when asked who should sit in the mic chair for a group picture my peers pointed at me. I was supposed to get the announcement which was about UF sports inductees done in a minute and I did just that. Personally, I believe I was shaky and stuttering at points, but it is good to know this was not clear. This really confirmed my desire to work in sports. Throughout the week in anchoring my peers and I kept being told that we should not go into sports and should go into meteorology. This concerned me quite a bit, but I realize now I do not have to be a sports broadcast reporter if I want to make it in sports. 

  Did I like the campus?

  I do like the campus of Florida. I thought it was very pretty at night time when the Century Tower was lit up. The dining hall options were limited, but I believe this is due to the small amounts of staff and students currently at the school. The people I met on the campus were very kind from a random guy who told me where the dirty dishes drop off after I looked confused after my first meal to the director of the program who sang Party in the USA at the program's karaoke and the teacher assistants who gave me compliments on my anchoring and checking over of the teleprompter script.

My future with UF:

  I plan to apply to the University of Florida this fall. Common App opens in less than a month. My test scores are not exactly strong so that is where my fear comes in. I have an upcoming ACT and SAT. However, during one of the night lectures we spoke to current and recent University of Florida students and we (the SMI students) could ask the UF students whatever we wanted to. Someone asked if each person could say their SAT/ACT score and it was good to see that there was a variation in the scores people got. 

Moving Foward:

  I got to see Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. I hope by me gracing the area the team will have a fantastic season. I may or may not have told my brother that if FSU wins the national championship this year I would go to Florida State.

  During the sports elective on Thursday, I got an idea on how to change my college essays so that is something I need to get working on as Common App opens around August. Update, I did write a new collage essay that incoorporated my SMI experince! Along with this, maybe I can try to announce games at my high school. I know the guy who did it for basketball and baseball left, but there may be another person who already planned to do that. I did however apply to work in social media for my school's basketball team, but I have not heard back about this yet. Wish me luck!

More Photographs:

Disclaimer these are all uneditied and were shot using auto settings on my families camera which I have only used a few times. I would like to get more into photgraphy in the near future.

Update:

  It has been over a month since SMI and I miss the experience a lot, I have started my University of Florida application, wish me luck! I am posting this after asking for permission to speak on the program on this blog, but I did not hear anything back for the month so I do not speak for the program/school. Go Gators!