Don't Listen to Your Gut, Listen to Your Mom
This article features an online interview between SSCS's student journalist, Jillian Bent and SSCS's "feature student", SSCS's Meghan Keaney.
Q: As a high school senior at SSCS, did Washington Journalism Media Conference help you discover your future career? (Did it at least narrow down your options)?
A: I wouldn’t necessarily say that it helped me “discover my future career”. I’m still currently on the fence about what I want to do in the future but I will say that it did narrow down my options. By attending this conference, I believe that I will most likely enter the field of communications (that’s a very general topic). Whether I go into journalism (which is also a very general topic) or media studies for even film I’m not sure yet. The program definitely gave me a new appreciation and understanding of journalism and communications. My uncertain future was certainly a recurring theme of the blog I kept before, during and after my experience: "wanderlustmeg". |
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Q: What was the most important, or inspiring thing you learned at this convention?
A: During one of our sessions we listened to George Mason’s Dean of Admissions, Amy Takayama-Perez (who happened to be the mother of one of the girls in my color group). She spoke to us about the admissions process and basically reassured me that it’s okay to go to college with an undecided major. She also explained the applications in a way that I could actually understand them. Everyone knows about applications but when it comes down to it, most high schoolers don’t understand how to apply. So I was very lucky and grateful to listen to her speak. If you get the chance, I recommend looking up photos taken by Carol Guzy because she’s an absolute inspiration. She documents images that show people the truth about what’s going on in the world. Most of her pictures show pain and suffering (she has seen and lived through all of what she documents) and they are truly breathtaking. She mentioned that one picture could change everything and I totally agree. She shared with us a video of all of her pictures (in order of events) and some of the events were hurricane Katrina and the lost animals, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and she covered a story about an elderly woman (Miss Classie) taking care of her very elderly sister until she passed away (and then she followed the story even further because then Miss Classie passed away too right after her sister). To here and see some of these stories was truly amazing. |
Q: If you had to describe the event in 5 ways what would they be?
A: 1) My friend Cassandra (from Roanoke) says “Best. Week. Of. My. Life” 2) (more responses will come soon) 3) Andrew from Tennessee “Lit, lit, lit, lit, lit” 4) Emma from Texas “life-changing, inspiring, educational, created friendships ;)" 5) Camden from New York “I miss my best friends” , “George Mason is my home”, “I am gonna start crying”, “Hoda is my spirit animal”, “Carol Guzy is a god” |
Q: Did WJMC expand or change your knowledge and ideas of life? Explain.
A: Absolutely! I tend to believe that i’ve lived a very sheltered life (and that’s my own fault really) so to go to a big city such as D.C and be able to explore and learn new things was amazing. WJMC definitely changed my view about college. I honestly hated the idea of college (still am not too happy about going back to school for 4 more years) but being able to have a taste of it at George Mason made me realize there is so much more to college than going to classes and studying hard. You also meet so many amazing people and are given great opportunities in life. In addition, I think the conference made me appreciate the power of friendship (i know that sounds lame). I met a few of the kids going to the conference over social media sites like Twitter and then we later used the app GroupMe (which is the app we use during the week in D.C) to communicate. So, when we arrived at Mason we already were really close friends and it made the week even better, knowing that at any point I needed someone, they were there. I learned that sometimes you do need to take chances in life because they could turn out to be the greatest thing you ever did in your life. I took a huge chance going to D.C- the reason i titled this document “don’t listen to your gut, listen to your mom” is because my mom really wanted me to go and try this out. I had said yes and we sent in the application. For large programs like this they have a cancellation date (if you cancel before such date you get a refund). Anyways, right before the cancellation date I panicked and said I didn’t want to go and I told my mom to cancel. Obviously she told me otherwise and I’ll never be able to thank her enough. Ok I will now move onto the next question because I’m going a little overboard... |
Q: Which speaker inspired you the most, why?
A: I already kind of mentioned Amy and Carol earlier but one person that really inspired me was Kevin McCarthy. He’s a movie critic (really cool dude) and he and I share a lot of similar likes and interests which is why i’m now contemplating whether or not I myself should become a movie critic. He and I are both obsessed with movies and he told us that when deciding what career he wanted he knew he wanted to do something he loved. Therefore he took his love for movies and love for writing and combined them because he knew that he didn’t want to report the news for a living. I now follow him on snapchat and he posts all the hollywood events he goes to and all of the interviews he’s about to do. I think the most important thing I learned from him was that you should always follow your dreams. I know that sounds cliche but that’s exactly what he did and now he has a career that he loves. Q: What kind of people do you recommend would enjoy this event? (Personality; pessimistic, optimistic, leaders, followers, etc). A: I’d say that the best kind of people for this program are people who want to tell stories. Whether it’s through blogs, photos, essays, anything. You don’t have to be the greatest writer, or the greatest photographer, you don’t even have to love journalism! I showed up with no knowledge about politics or journalism but I had the most amazing time. I also recommend it to anyone on the fence like me. If you’re unsure what you want to do or if you’re unsure about college go to this program or programs like this one! George Mason has other conferences available to students such as the Envision Career & Leadership Programs and Washington Youth Summit on the Environment, so you don’t necessarily have to go for journalism (even though i highly recommend going to this one!). Like I said earlier, sometimes you just have to take a chance and go for it, and my experience has been unbelievable. |