AYA week 1! :)

I really couldn’t imagine my first week at the Annenberg Youth Academy going any better than it did. In these five days, I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself and the amazing group of people in this program. I was honestly really nervous at first, but meeting both Professor Lopez and Turner made me excited to learn and step out of my comfort zone. To be honest, I didn’t know much about the study of Communications. In my school, we had only gone over it briefly in a couple of conversations and it had sparked my interest, so getting to learn more about it and have open discussion about it has made me realize that it is something I would love to study in the future. I enjoy learning about how it affects everything around us from our Personal behavior to Political media. I know that there are so many different types of media around us and there’s so many ways to use them to communicate. From posting on instagram to reading the latest articles on magazines, news is spread in so many ways and is able to get people talking instantly.

 Journalism with Miki Turner has also been so incredible, getting to visit the media center and getting to create our own miniature podcasts was so entertaining. I would’ve never thought to enjoy being in a podcast as much as I did and honestly might consider starting one. I’m so excited to create one for one of our future projects and get into learning about the fundamentals of editing and creating a podcast in a more in-depth way. Podcasts are such a fun way to have conversations and discuss big ideas, creating them in groups and hearing everyone’s opinions can teach you so much about the world around us. Even though we are still young and many of us won’t be voting in this next presidential election, We spoke so confidently about our dreams for our country and how our voices still have an impact. Especially with social media and being able to share our thoughts at any given moment. 

The biggest highlight of my week was taking a trip to Placita Olvera. So much culture and love surrounds the place and you can really feel it when you walk through the street. It was also such a fun way to get to know everyone a lot better. In class we don’t have much room to move around so I didn’t get to have conversations with everyone right away, however on this trip I spoke to everyone and got to see them all enjoy visiting Olvera street. We were all so excited to take pictures and just enjoy being there. Not only did we get to experience the culture and love around us but we were able to talk to many of the vendors there. Looking at their shops and asking about their stories gave me a new perspective. These amazing people work hard every day to support their families and they do it in a way where they can share their culture with the world around them. I feel like I created so many bonds on this trip and will make the following weeks so much more fun.