So It Begins.
Here lie sixteen years of Goucher College history.
Last night, my dad and I went over to the Quindecim newsroom and organized hundreds of issues of the newspaper. Stacks of papers, some of which literally hadn’t been touched or moved since 1994, lay scattered in a shelved closet.
Together, we covered the floor with every individual edition of the newspaper, then organized them by year.
This was a huge job that was years overdue. It’s the first stage of my extensive newsroom remodeling this summer. Preserving the publication’s history and maintaining a clean and functional newsroom is just as important a responsibility as providing the community with verified, reliable, trustworthy content and information.
I’ll be documenting the newsroom’s transformation as I work on it over the summer. Thanks to my dad for that idea, and for his help sorting through moldy, rotten newspapers.
Kente.
I went to the “Donning of the Kente Cloth” ceremony at Goucher for the first time this year. Graduating seniors were draped in cloth strips of kente, a colorful fabric native to Ghana. The cloth, traditionally representative of the wearer’s personal history, social values, and political beliefs, is worn during graduation.
I shot the ceremony for The Goucher Quarterly, but having never been before, I didn’t really know what to expect. Each student honored spoke to the audience. It was a nice opportunity for them to express their thanks and reflect on their time at Goucher.
After looking through my work the next day, it seemed like I focused most on the emotions that came with receiving this honor. The day was filled with tears, laughter, and long embraces with family and friends.
I was happy with this frame. I think it sums up the feel of the event nicely. I’m sure my emotions will be just as high a year from now, when I’ll be the one graduating.
The Q.
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, The Quindecim, Goucher College’s student newspaper, was essentially non-existant.
I’m proud to say that the current staff and I devoted much of our time and effort this year into picking the publication back up off its feet and ensuring its existence. No college campus is complete without an independent voice of the students.
For the upcoming year, I’ll be the Editor-In-Chief of The Q. We’ve got a fresh staff, great relationships with the administration, offices on campus, and the Student Government Association, and bundles of new ideas. We’re dedicated to drastically improving the quality and consistency of the paper, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to do so next year.
I was the Photography Editor for two years, and I will still hold the position next year. I’m used to being called “the kid with the big camera” around campus rather than by my name, which I love. Needless to say, I shoot a lot of pictures.
Here’s a good sampling of the kinds of stories I shoot: news, sports, arts, features, and the occasional landscape. Enjoy!