Tag: penn state

Life Updates: I’m a grad!

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So, for a few life updates since I last posted. If you head over to the “about me” section on this website, you might notice a few changes. That’s right. Instead of “Penn State senior,” I am officially a “Penn State alumna.” It’s the most awesome and terrifying change ever.

One the one hand, it’s pretty darn cool to say that I’m an alumna. It took four years of hard work, a few tears, and maybe even a little blood and sweat, but I am now officially an alumna of the Pennsylvania State University with bachelors degrees in Journalism and International Politics with a minor in History. I also had my Schreyer Medal Ceremony and received my honors medal for completing the honors requirements and writing my thesis.

After a wonderful, whirlwind weekend of graduation with equal parts joy and nostalgia (yes, yes I did cry while singing the Alma Mater for the last time), I threw everything in my room into my car and drove home…

…Only to return to State College the very next day (even when I leave this place, I can’t stay away for very long). I had one more week of work before my job transferred me to a location closer to home (the plan is to work for the summer and job hunt). I also wanted to stick around to help celebrate a good friend’s birthday, so in order to deny that graduation actually happened and it’s time for me to be a “real adult,” I decided to stay in State College for another week or two.

State College summers are probably one of my favorite things. Ever since spending all of last summer living and working in State College, I realized that the only thing better than going to school at Penn State is living in State College during the summer. State College summers have all the perks of the regular year at Penn State with none of the lines or wait times. It’s basically a win-win.

I’m staying with one of my best friends who also just graduated, and we’re enjoying our time by putting out all the job applications in the world (which isn’t actually as scary as movies make you think it is — believe it or not, once you nail a cover letter, it’s kind of fun!)

Anyway, that’s it for now with the life updates. Always more to come!

Launching Girlnalist

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This semester, I had a few extra credits to fill, so I decided to take a Journalism and Entrepreneurship pilot class taught by three professors. I expected the class to mostly deal with the business of journalism and freelancing — it’s common knowledge that many journalists spend some time freelancing.

While we did talk about freelancing and self-employment, most of the class focused on building and learning entrepreneurship skills, learning about startups and the startup mentality, and the innovation loop. Our final project for the class was to create a startup or business idea and then pitch it to the class.

After a mock Google-style design sprint, a few of my classmates and I came up with the idea of Girlnalist — an online network of resources for women in media and journalism. We decided to use this idea as our final project. But the more we worked with it and thought about it, we realized that this idea could actually work and was something we really wanted to pursue. So we’re launching Girlnalist. I could tell you more about it, but I think I’ll let our pitch speak for itself. Check it out (Oh, and follow us on Twitter at @Girlnalist)!

 

Girlnalists from psucommedia on Vimeo.

A Love Letter to the Place that Built Me

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Dear Penn State,

Four years ago, as a senior in high school, I fell in love. No, not with a boy. I fell in love with something much better. I fell in love with a place. Specifically, a few square miles of campus in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. I accepted my offer of admission to Penn State, and I never looked back.

Over the next four years, I fell even harder. I fell in love with blue and white and Success with Honor and football Saturdays and wrapping my arms around my best friends as 108,000 people sang the words to the Alma Mater as we played and cheered for those who came before us and those who will come after us.

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I fell in love with the Nittany Lion and the Blue Band and drum major flips over the 50-yard-line and 99-yard interceptions and quadruple overtime games and being recklessly thrown into the air by strangers and rallies in Beaver Canyon when we were given back what was rightfully ours.

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I fell in love with terrible $1-a-slice pizza and Wings over and Death by Chocolate milkshakes from the Creamery and grilled stickies and West cookies.

I fell in love with a college newsroom and trips to Marg’s for ravs and inside jokes and R-Kelly marathons and random quotes. I fell in love with a new type of journalism and spending too many nights out at Innovation Park.

I fell in love with FTK and Springfield and raising my diamonds and crying alongside 15,000 other students and water gun fights and bubbles and the joy of a child.

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I fell in love with gorgeous fall days on  HUB Lawn and spring at the Arboretum and snowball fights on Old Main.

I fell in love with $4 Cafe pitchers and Monkey Boy Thursdays and Twenty-Phyrsts and closing down the bar shouting the lyrics along with  My Hero Zero and Phyrst fries and late night trips to Jimmy John’s.

 

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I fell in love with all the late nights spent with friends as we laughed while doing mountains of homework because we weren’t sure if we should laugh or cry and laughing seemed easier. I fell in love with Bachelor Wednesdays and Friday night movie nights and heart-to-hearts and movie nights in Borland and taking naps on the conference room floor because we were too tired or too busy to actually make it to bed.

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I fell in love with academics and classes and the hearing the stories of the most interesting professors I’ve ever met and trips abroad and getting lost in Prague and exploring London and learning from my peers and maybe teaching them something too.

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I fell in love with all the good times for the memories they have given me. I fell in love with the wonderful friends who will have my back long after I leave this place. I fell in love with the lessons I’ve learned and the experiences I’ve had. And I fell in love with the bad times too for the lessons they’ve taught me and the ways in which they made me stronger.

I fell in love with all the big things and a million little things at Penn State. I fell in love with this place, this school, this family, this feeling. I threw myself into Penn State completely, unreservedly and wholeheartedly. I have loved Penn State with everything in me, and somehow, Penn State found a way to love me back.

I’m a different person now from the person I was four years ago when I first moved in. I’ve grown and changed and learned and loved and laughed and lost and hurt and cried and thought and moved and danced and lived. Penn State is the place where I truly, completely felt 100% comfortable being me. Penn State accepted me for who I was and made me into the best version of myself. Penn State is the place where I learned to love who I am and feel confident and wear black leather jackets and red lipstick just because I can.

Penn State took me in as a wide-eyed freshman still trying to figure out life and turned me into the best version of myself. At Penn State, I am my favorite version of me. These few square miles of campus have been my home for the past four years, and I can’t imagine a better place to spend them. I don’t know a lot in this world, but I know more than when I came in. I don’t want to leave, but I can do so knowing that I have zero regrets. If I could do it all over again, I would. And I wouldn’t change a thing. So thank you Penn State. Thank you for loving me and building me and letting me live life to the fullest. Thank you for being more than a school. Thank you for giving me a second family and the knowledge that no matter where I am, I’ll carry you in my heart. Thank you for making this place feel like home and then making sure that I’ll feel at home anywhere I find another Penn Stater.

I love you Penn State. I loved you four years ago, and I’ll keep loving you long after I leave. I’ll be seeing you again.

Love,
Mary

Another Day, another photo

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I don’t know if this is a multimedia journalist thing or just a me thing, but I love taking pictures. My friends know that any time we go anywhere, I’ll probably be the one whipping my phone out to take the perfect picture and document the moment. I’d much rather have pictures than souvenirs.

This was from my recent spring break trip to Jupiter, Florida, a small town twenty minutes south of Palm Beach. During our time there, my friends and I checked out Square Grouper, a favorite bar/restaurant among the locals. Square Grouper is located on the bay and is almost entirely outdoors on the sand. When I took this picture, we were seated on the bay wall with our feet dangling over the water in our best impression of a Jimmy Buffett song while eating french fries.

This was taken with my iPhone, so the quality isn’t fantastic, but it was right around sunset, so there were a million different lighting opportunities. At the time I just snapped the picture, but looking back on it, I was pretty pleased with the composition of the shot, the lighting and the fact that I somehow managed to work the rule of thirds in.

Of all the places we visited while in Florida, this might be one of my favorites, and this is definitely one of my favorite shots, especially because of the good memories.

Behind the Photo

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The Image, Deconstructed is a weekly blog that spotlights different photographers. The blog looks at one or two pictures from a photographer and then interviews the photographer on every detail that went into making that photo. While I don’t consider myself at the level of these professionals, I do consider myself a fairly decent photographer, and I thought it would be interesting to share one of my own photos and how I made it.

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This photo of Mike Gesicki, a Penn State tight end, was taken at the annual Lift for Life event in July 2015. The Penn State football team’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes raises money and awareness to fight kidney cancer. Every year, the team holds a “Lift for Life” event as one of their marquee events. Basically, the team gets people to pledge money and then they lift very heavy things such as massive truck tires.

When I showed up to the lacrosse field for the event early in the morning, it was already a sweltering July day with temperatures reaching the 80s. On arrival, after I picked up my press pass, all media was herded behind the outer lines of the field and told to stay put. Getting good photos was an exercise in jockeying around other reporters — definitely an important skill for any aspiring journalist.

Split between offense and defense, the players compete in teams to finish a series of challenges, such as bench presses, tire rolls and deadlifts. There’s a lot going on, so I needed to pick and choose which events I wanted to focus on. This picture was definitely unplanned, but I’m so happy with the way my “accident” photo turned out. I was on my way to the other end of the field when I saw some of the offense getting ready for the sled pull event. I was able to elbow my way across the field just in time.

Sometimes, being five feet tall can be a hindrance while covering live events and trying to get the best shot. But in times like these, being elbow height to other reporters is an asset that allows me to dash through the crowd.

Gesicki’s team had just won the sled pull event, and I was just in time to capture this moment as Gesicki celebrated. One of the reasons I like this shot is the color. The blue and white of the players’ uniforms is a great contrast against the green field and blue sky. And I like that I was able to make the shot with Gesicki in the foreground.

But looking back, there are a few things I would have liked to do differently. I would have liked to get Gesicki more centered in the frame so he would be more of the focus. I also would have liked to frame the shot with less  distractions in the background. And of course, I would have loved to get a few shots of his face, but being corralled behind the field lines prevented that.

Covering this event was definitely one of my favorite assignments during my summer internship. I don’t usually get to cover football-related events, and as a huge football fan, it was definitely cool to see. It was also a chance to try a new style of reporting and a great learning experience.

Tales from a multimedia journalist

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Unlike some visual journalists, I didn’t initially start out working in multimedia. My journey to the world of multimedia was a winding path with a lot of twists and turns (including a brief pit stop as a copy editor). I thought I should start off this blog with a longer introduction about me.

When I was about 7, I told anyone who would listen that when I grew up, I wanted to be a “book writer and illustrator” (I forgot that my artistic skills are limited to stick figures). As the years went on, I shifted focus for a while and in middle school was convinced I wanted to be a lawyer, probably human rights — what can I say? I’ve always wanted to single-handedly save the world. For the longest time, I had it all planned out. I was going to major in political science with a minor in history. I was going to go to Georgetown Law School, work in D.C. and then eventually become a partner in my dad’s law firm. I was clearly a very ambitious 12 year-old.

My senior year of high school, at the advice of a counselor, I started looking into journalism programs. I will forever be grateful to that counselor because her simple suggestion forever altered the course of my life in the best way possible. I fell in love with journalism whole-heartedly. It’s a wonderful moment when you realize you passion and your place in the world.

When I came to Penn State, I was determined to go the print route. Nothing was better than the smell of newspaper or the chalky feel of newsprint staining my fingers. I immediately signed up for the campus newspaper and put my secondary political science major to use by writing about student government and administration. At the time, I was firmly entrenched in the print culture. I was always interested in multimedia, but I really placed more emphasis on the print route. Although I’ll always wish I had gotten into multimedia earlier, my print focus really forced me to become a strong writer, which in turn, made be a better journalist.

After a very rough semester as a copy editor, I realized that the campus paper was no longer the right fit for me. I was burned out, and I was starting lose a little bit of the original passion I had for journalism. I had gleaned all I could, and it was time to find my next adventure. On a whim, I had decided to take an advanced multimedia production class, which ended up being the best decision of my college career. I fell in love with multimedia and was reminded why I got into journalism in the first place.

There will always be a very special place in my heart for traditional print journalism, but I think there’s so many more ways to tell a story, and isn’t that what journalism is all about? Telling the stories of those around us?

A few multimedia classes, an internship and a freelancing gig later, I feel like I’m finally at a place in my journalism career where I know exactly what I want to do and where I want to go. As a graduating senior, I’m facing that terrifying process of finding a job and figuring out what I want to do with my life. I’ve been exploring multimedia jobs and hopefully, in two and a half months, I’ll be packing up my 2008 Toyota Camry and heading off into the sunset to Washington, D.C.

I don’t know a lot about what the future, but no matter what, I’ll keep telling stories.