When I was little, I always loved playing with disposable cameras. Whenever my parents had one, I would take it and take pictures of my friends, my family, or my surroundings. When I got my first cell phone, I was obsessed with taking short videos of my friends and myself. My parents would always listen to the radio when we were in the car and let me express my love for music. It was all of these little things that helped instill a love for media inside of me, and now studying Communication Studies with a concentration in Digital Media, I am thankful to have the privilege to work on projects that I love every day.
Maddie, 2016
Before I came to Longwood, I lived in Springfield, Virginia. This is a place very close to DC, so I’ve lived my whole life very close to the city, being surrounded with media technologies at a younger age. For most of my younger years, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to study in college or do with my life after that. I had the mindset of, “I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but that’s okay, and I still have time.” That was true for most of my life. I did have time. But as the end of high school approached, I realized that I was still drilling myself with the same mindset that was slowly losing its meaning.
Shannon, 2018
One day, in my photojournalism class, I said to my advisor, “Why can’t I do this with the rest of my life? I’d design yearbooks as a career if that was realistic.” Shortly after that, I realized that it wasn’t making yearbooks that I wanted to do. It was making media, period. I loved taking photos for the yearbook. I loved writing news copies for the yearbook. I loved making supplemental videos to go along with marketing for the yearbook. I realized that though the yearbook was my means to doing all of those things at the time, I no longer needed it. I could do all of these things for the rest of my life. It was then when I realized I should start looking for schools with Communication Studies programs.
Alex, 2016
The first couple of schools I visited had Communication Studies programs that were less than impressive. Everything had sort of the idea that I wanted, but nothing was able to grasp it in its whole. At the time, one of my coworkers was also looking at schools, and she had told me that she decided she was going to Longwood. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but she swore up and down to me that it seemed like the best place on earth. So, when I got home, I looked it up, and I was impressed with what I saw. I convinced my mom to take me on a tour, and I completely fell in love. Not only with the school itself, but with the program. None of the other schools that I had looked at had a Digital Media program, and learning about it was exactly what I never knew I wanted. Through this program, I’ve continued to grow and thrive while developing the skills needed to find success in the field I’d like to pursue.
Maddie, 2016