Bingo. Everyone’s favorite game. Said no one ever.
My first day at the Annenberg Youth Academy began very stressfully. When I first arrived in the Annenberg building, I was incredibly nervous to meet everyone. Like many others, I didn’t know what to expect. But my first challenge—meeting new people. This has always proved to be challenging for me and when tasked with having to participate in Human Bingo as an ice breaker to meet my fellow classmates, I was dreading it. However, after all the awkwardness and stumbling over my words, this little game proved to actually be helpful. Meeting new people and realizing just how friendly and open the environment was helped me to relax and feel prepared for the education to come.
Delving into what the classes looked like for my first week at AYA, I learned about the responsibilities, strategies, and behind the scenes that go into making effective change through Communications and Journalism.
Communications may seem like a simple class at first. We communicate every day with others, so what could there possibly be to learn? Turns out, communication goes a lot deeper than we think. In Professor Rogelio Lopez’s class we explored the strategies used to convey and depict messages presented through different mediums. On the second day of class, we learned that there are two parts to communication. Encoding and decoding. This idea describing the relationship between what message people present and how they are received plays a crucial role in the development of media. On the third and fourth day of class, this was further discussed when we went over the choices made when designing zines and infographics. Every decision made, the colors, fonts, and placement, is intentional and meant to create easily digestible information for audiences. Simple, yet powerful. In one of the required readings, “The Functional Art” by Alberto Cairo, this is expanded upon as he explains the thought process behind emphasizing specific information and what is important to convey your message. All these factors may seem small, the shades, text, and organization, yet they all contribute to ensure the message is communicated effectively through design.
During Journalism 101 taught by Professor Allan Lopez, I learned so much about news and broadcast journalism. Although news is meant to provide facts and the truth, there is much creativity, careful planning, and decision making that goes into how it is told. There are different ways you can choose to lead a story, the way you format it, and what perspective you choose to share. My favorite thing to learn about and practice was when we had to order news stories based on their importance. I discovered that things such as location, immediacy, and life are all things to consider when picking what to prioritize. A moment that truly felt like the class was working as a unit was when we had to plan our own news broadcast and talk about stories we think need to be shared. Everyone was sharing their opinions, collaborating, and reflecting. There was a buzz of excitement in the air towards the responsibility we all had. It was a very insightful experience of the behind-the-scenes strategies that drive meaningful change through Communications and Journalism.
To end off the incredible first week, we had a field trip to the California African American Museum. It was such an immersive experience that taught me a lot about personal stories people in the African American community went through and how they faced adversity. One of my favorite exhibitions was the Ode to ’Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena. It showcased artwork from the Altadena community that was tragically engulfed in flames due to the Palisades Fire. Seeing so much incredible artwork, perspectives, and stories from a neighborhood so near where I live was incredible. It granted me a newfound appreciation for the city.
Overall, my first week at AYA went better than I could have imagined. The inviting atmosphere, amazing teachers, and interesting subjects make me excited for the following weeks to come.
Works Cited: Cairo, A. (2012). The functional art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. New Riders.
Communicating Change 