The Summer @ USC I Turned: Confident!

“a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities”

The most inspiring speakers. Speaking up during discussions. Making a podcast. Being an anchor for the first time. The second week at AYA has been fulfilling, and has even increased my confidence in my own abilities after gaining so much knowledge, insights, and cool experiences!

Monday

As an ex-competitive dancer, my relationship with dance has fluctuated over the years. However, our guest speaker, Taj Frasier, talked to us about Krump dance, and it really allowed me to feel reconnected with dance. I began to remember how dance is a form of self expression, allowing people to speak, and to have a platform to express themselves. Krump dance is very sharp and aggressive, and the founders of this style used it to tell the stories of their community, and I think there is so much beauty and power in that.

That afternoon, we learned about VO’s and SOT’s during journalism class to end off the first day of the second week.

Tuesday

Today was all about culture. In COMMS, we talked about oral traditions, hiphop, street culture, and more. Mark Schoofs, an investigative journalist, came and taught us about his experiences and also guided us through a reading regarding Watergate. He gave us valuable advice on “how to get people talking”, which is useful in practically every field of journalism. I think that while I interview others, sometimes I feel shy or that I’m bothering them, but learning to try and create a genuine connection and focusing on their interests and what they want to talk about, I feel more confident with interviewing now.

In Journalism, we did a fun activity where we silently interviewed Karen Garcia, practicing our observational skills.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a very unique day. After our COMMS class, we had lunch at EVK, the dining hall. I’ve never tried college food before, and it was, well…

Just as I thought we would return to our nice, air conditioned room, we were told that we were going to do a scavenger hunt. Around campus. In the heat. It sounded pretty scary at first, but as soon as we got started, it was really fun! I enjoyed going to explore more places on the USC campus, and having fun with other classmates. As someone who is not athletic at all, I felt so tired after running around in the heat, but hey, I got my workout in for the day! We didn’t win the scavenger hunt, but nevertheless it was still super fun to do.

After the scavenger hunt, we wrote a script for a broadcast during journalism. As a class, we all had our own sections to research and write with partners, and together, we created a full script.

Thursday

Starting off with COMMS, I particularly enjoyed the media literacy lesson as I’m very interested in this topic, and all concepts we learned will help me as a consumer but also creator. Our guest speaker, Joy Ofodu, was a super amazing and talented voice actress. Her energy, humor, and confidence really radiated during her talk. Afterwards, I decided to have a little conversation with her, and I feel so much more confident in my ability to succeed in competitive industries after her advice and reassurance. The lunch was beyond delicious, there were so many different options and each and every one of them tasted sooo good!

Journalism class looked a little different, as we were able to go into the media center! Being in the facility was very inspiring, with the TV’s, the different studios, and so much cool technology. We were there to film our newscast, and I signed up to be anchor. To be honest, I was really nervous and scared I would mess up, but Prof. Lopez was super encouraging throughout the whole process. Seeing my reflection on the TV, being under the bright lights, reading from the teleprompter, and messing up far less than I thought really made me more confident in my ability as an anchor. I realized I was nervous for no reason! The rest of the media cast was also super supportive and fun to work with, and at the end of the day, I felt so grateful I got to experience being an anchor and experience the media center while still in high school.

Last thoughts…

What a week!! I feel so much more confident in my knowledge and abilities through the unique experiences this past week brought me. I feel unstoppable as I now know I am capable of smartly consuming media, and creating media as well, in all different shapes and forms.

AYA has been such an amazing experience so far, and I will cherish the last two weeks we have left.

Fight on,

-Amaris ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚