Departure:((

     I am leaving! Reality has set in. When you first start a program you feel like you will be there forever and then at the very last minute time speeds up. I am leaving soon and I am leaving with lessons. I discovered I was good at photography and that has already landed me the lead position of  photographer on my school's award winning news paper. I'm so excited. And I will miss all of my new friends and I think we will stay in touch. We've made plans to do some things so I'm excited. We're all bright people and we have very bright futures you ahead of us. Also special thanks to the people who've helped me. All the professors and students and graduates helped a ton. Thanks so much. :))
                                                               xoxo Justina

Arrival

"It'll be alright, you'll, make new friends," I was told. Coming into this program I was beyond excited about it. I was shopping for new clothing, brushing up on my grammar, and buying things to bring with me. What I didn't realize until I had gotten here was that I was going to be around people I had never met in my life! I was so nervous. I remember coming to the opening dinner and meeting everyone and hearing Dr. LeDuff say, "You roommate is already here." Immediately I started to wonder things like would she be like my friends or would she be mean. I knew that it would take time to make friends but I was way too impatient for that. I mean this opportunity is amazing. Very rarely do high school students get to study under college professors in the field they want to pursue. I was lucky!  However, people tend to want to share these events with other people and I couldn't because I didn't know anyone but that all changed.

Media Frenzy

Coming into USM's high school journalism program I knew we would be working with different types of media. Everyday we are assigned a different type and so far I have done a newspaper article and photography. I really do love writing and I had a lot of fun doing my piece. I was led to the student newspaper room which is a basement. It was so quiet and so secluded. I really felt like I was a legit writer. Before coming here I just knew that I would  have a better newspaper article than anything else since  that's what I'm most familiar with. I think I was wrong. I did receive some praise for my article but when I did photography it was really exciting and new. I came in expecting to be the worst photographer here. I really did surprise myself. For me and my lack of knowledge, I actually think I did really well. I had so much fun. Right after we looked at the photos, my newspaper teacher texted me and asked me how things were going. I told her about my new found love for photography and I even built up enough confidence to ask her could I be in charge of photography next year. She said, "ABSOLUTELY." I am so excited and I'm trying to absorb as much knowledge as I possibly can so that I can take what I've learned and make my school's newspaper better. I do plan on asking Dr. Coleman (photography teacher) for some pointers and a lot of advice. By the end of this program he will probably be tired of me  because I plan on asking him as many questions as possible.  I'm very proud that I did asked my teacher for such a position. I really think I can go far with photography!