First week at USC AYA! From exploring museums to new career paths to the beautiful USC campus, many words come to mind when I try to summarize this week, but I think “exploration” encapsulates my experience the most. This week has been an adventure to remember, and I am so excited for the next weeks to come!
Day 1:
After enjoying a delicious breakfast, our first guest speaker Jordyn Holman totally wowed me with her experiences as a journalist for the New York Times. After, we started our first class of COMM 101, learning from THE Rogelio Lopez! As if the day couldn’t get more jam packed with amazing speakers, Chanel Lake and Kelly Uchima spoke to us about influencer marketing, and I enjoyed learning about their jobs, the inside scoop of brand deals for influencers, and strategies used. These speakers allowed me to explore new career paths I have never considered before, and I’m super grateful to have learned from them. After lunch, the day concluded with a Journalism lesson from Prof. Allan Lopez, who has a plethora of journalism experience such as with KTLA. I enjoyed our activity of making a zine and being creative! At the end of Day 1, I was so tired yet so energized at the same time for the next days to come. Can’t wait for Day 2!!
Day 2
Starting the day with COMM 101, I especially enjoyed learning about civic engagement concepts such as political participation, civic participation, and civic imagination, which all are concepts I hope to apply as I continue to endeavor on activities I do that promote youth civic engagement. The guest speaker was Melanie Cherry, and I loved exploring the realm of public relations, especially when she mentioned fashion and entertainment. I noted to myself that I wanted to try and look for an internship in this industry because the world of PR fascinated me so much! In Journalism, I filled three pages of notes as we learned about nut grafs, structure, and tips for better writing. Can’t wait for the Juneteenth field trip tomorrow!
Day 3
We started the day with COMMS, focusing on civic media. I especially enjoyed being able to learn about the history of civic media and how it has evolved. After class, we got to have a Juneteenth barbeque! To say the food was delicious is a total understatement- I’m not even going to lie, I went back to get mac and cheese THREE times! It was that good. Following the barbeque lunch, we walked over to the California African American Museum. We explored all the exhibits, which each had their own theme. I really appreciated all the artwork and exhibits, highlighting African American history and culture. Because it was a beautiful day out, I didn’t want to go home so soon, so I went to the village to complete some assignments. I tried the matcha from Cafe Dulce (thanks Karen for the recommendation), and it was so good! After Day 3, I was pretty tired but I was still really excited for Day 4, another field trip day!
Day 4
I must have done the most exploring this day, from getting off at the wrong bus stop to going to Little Tokyo for the first time, Day 4 was eventful indeed. Riding the bus to Little Tokyo, I accidently got off at the wrong stop and ended up in an…interesting area (it had a ton of tents). I quickly pulled out Google Maps and luckily I made it to Little Tokyo in time. Meeting with the group. we had an educational journey at the Japanese American National Museum. I love learning about AAPI history, and the volunteers truly enriched the experience. We even got a fun origami lesson! After, we enjoyed lunch as a group, and although the rice I ordered was kind of salty, most of the food was very delicious! After lunch, we broke into smaller groups to explore Little Tokyo more. I got delicious matcha soft serve at Somi Somi, and even bought a 1 dollar face mask for fun at a beauty store. We rode the metro back to USC, where I stayed later to do my Vox Pop assignment.
Riding the train back home, I felt so grateful to have experienced this amazing, eventful, yet tiring week full of exploration! I can’t wait to experience what the next few weeks bring.
What will the theme word for next week be? Come back to find out!
Fight on!
-Amaris ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
Info On the Museums Visited:
Communicating Change 