Mass Media and Journalism Major/ Photography Minor
I am a recent graduate (Spring 2021) from Texas A&M University- Commerce (TAMUC) with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Mass Media and Journalism (MMJ) with a minor in photography. These two programs worked perfectly together for me building off of my love for being behind the camera, a love I've had from a very young age. I got into videography and photography work as early as the 6th grade and I haven't looked back since. I wanted a degree where I could work in professional video production and continue to do photography on the side as a hobby. I would love to use my degree to work as a director or cinematographer on TV or movie sets. I have also considered a career in sports media after my experience working with Lion Athletics. This career field has more options and opportunities than I ever imagined and I know whatever path I choose after graduation, I'll be producing great content with some amazing crews.
Mane Media
I began working with the Mane Media Student Organization my sophomore year of college and my first year at Texas A&M University-Commerce. This organization deals with everything media related that is produced by the Mass Media and Journalism (MMJ) department. They oversee all radio production on the student station KKOM and the professional, on-campus station 88.9 KETR. They also manage the student run newspaper, The East Texan, and all productions coming out of our TV studio on campus. Mane Media serves as a social media presence on campus and has connections with Lion Athletics where students assist with sports media.
I was hired my sophomore year as a student production assistant in the MMJ department which allowed me to assist the Mane Media officers with any and all of their projects throughout the year. These projects included radio, tv, print, and online projects as well as fundraisers and benefits.
My junior year I continued my work as a production assistant and was nominated and named the President of the Mane Media Student Organization. This title allowed me to build a team to lead our department and be a bridge between students and faculty. After becoming president, I helped our department launch a few new and exciting projects including our live streaming show "MMJ Live". I was also able to connect with other groups on campus and the Commerce community to reestablish the Mane Media brand.
My senior year was drastically different from any other due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 that spilled into 2021. I continued my work as Mane Media President and was also named the Social Media Editor for The East Texan student newspaper in the spring semester of my senior year. My goal during my senior year was to prepare the next generation of leaders to take over after me and the team I had built mostly graduated in spring of 2021.
I started working with Lion Athletics my very first semester at TAMUC (Fall 2018) and until my graduation was a reliable and consistent part of the team producing content for the university sports. I began by just working odd jobs and doing whatever was needed through a sports media class I was taking that semester, these jobs could range from keeping stats to running a camera.
After continuing to work jobs here and there for volleyball, basketball, and soccer through the spring of 2019, I was offered a job for the fall of 2019 as the head video director for football. This job would build off of skills I had gained in high school running scoreboards and video for my teams back home on a much bigger scale. I was tasked with building a team consisting of two cameras on top of the press box, a sideline camera, and someone to run replays and our livestream with me directing it all. This was a very big honor for me to be offered this position so I eagerly got straight to work assembling my crew. Over the course of the fall 2019 home football season my team continued to improve and get praise from fans and faculty alike. The job didn't come without its challenges, but in the end it was a very helpful and fun experience getting to produce content live for a large audience with my own crew to lead.
In the 2019-2020 school year I was awarded the Sports Information Student Academic Award by the LSC Conference after being nominated by Lion Athletics for my work with football that fall. I won the award again in the 2020-2021 school year for my work as an intern with the Lion Athletics media and communications department during my senior year.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic kept me off the TAMUC campus for most of 2020 I returned to work with Lion Athletics in the spring of 2021. I began 2021 as an intern for the Lion Athletics media and communications team lead by Josh Manck and Jun Lee. My responsibilities as an intern mainly consisted of running our "production truck" live stream software for all sporting events. Since the COVID-19 pandemic kept sports from competing in the fall of 2020 the spring semester held all sports seasons including: volleyball, soccer, softball, men and women's basketball, and track. I was in charge of running the stream making sure sound from our commentators, video from multiple cameras, in game graphics, sponsored ads, and pre and post game interviews could all be seen by our virtual audience since no fans could attend most events. I continued this work until my graduation in May of 2021, and am very thankful to Lion Athletics for the opportunities they have given me throughout my three years at TAMUC.
GO LIONS!!!