Who I am

I have a high school diploma from Dos Pueblos High School, and over 25 college credits, one full year of college equivalent, from Santa Barbara City College. I am currently enrolled in University of California Riverside as a Business Analytics underegraduate.  I am Adobe Premiere Pro certified as well as a licesced California Food Handler.

 I am defined by my love for visual media.  News, broadcasting,  nature photography, short form videos, long form videos, documentaries, art photography, all of it.  I’ve been creating and learning different kinds of media for my entire life.  In elementary school I was part of a handful of students who did the Mason Crest News for the first year that it was out.  It was a small setup with a single camera, a teleprompter on google slides, and 2 kids sitting at a desk.  It was run out of a small closet in the library.  When I moved up to middle school I took a digital art class, where I first learned how to use photoshop.  I also worked to make the Glasgow middle school morning news show.  There I learned how to do a better live broadcast and some basics of writing for news.  I learned the very basics of audio panels and video switching.  It wasn't an advanced setup, with each show being recorded to a VHS tape and having to be rewound to retake anything.  Unfortunately my time on the news show and in digital art was cut short in 7th grade when Covid-19 hit.  Covid-19 marked a still point in my media journey, halting all my progress .  I spent some more time learning photoshop, making a profile picture that I used on some online platforms for a while.  During Covid-19 is when I moved across the country from DC to California.   This is when I was enrolled in Dos Pueblos High School, where I started the first class of freshman year in the DPNews studio.  Over the next months I learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, got a better understanding of how to use cameras and learned more advanced techniques for filming and editing.  I learned how to edit almost any kind of video; such as news stories, sports edits, and commercials.  I also volunteered at events like live streaming football games and recording dances.  I spent the next 3 years in that class getting better at my skills, to the point where I got certified in Adobe Premiere Pro. During that time I also spent the cross country season as the team photographer, taking over 18,000 photos, and took the IB level film course offered at my high school. Over the course of  my high school career I took almost every opportunity that approached me, entering into national media competitions, winning 4th place for news package at one of them.  During my junior year of high school I got the opportunity to work as a grip for a student SBIFF film, one of only 10 groups who made the cut to produce films.  We were also able to watch the movie about a week before its official premiere in Robert Zemeckesis’s private screening room at his house.  Having the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump watch a film I helped make and give praise was an incredible honor.  Since just before getting my drivers license I’ve been working on building a business and a website to take my career to the next level.  I look forward to college and being able to take my career to the next level in the journalism, marketing, or public relations sector.  It hasn’t been an easy journey with lots of hard work, setbacks, equipment failures, and personal issues, but its been something that I’ve sincerely enjoyed doing, and hope to continue working on through college and the remainder of my life.