Indie Major: Emily Jajliardo

Individualized Major: Visual Storytelling for Children
Graduation Date: December 2023

Why Individualized? I chose to be an individualized major because I had interest in both the child development domain as well as the visual production field, but I didn't want to limit myself to one field or the other. Being an individualized major allowed me to pursue both interests.
Most memorable course or project from your major? I loved all of my classes for my major, but one of the most memorable courses was my Advanced Visual Journalism course with Professor Steven Smith. One of the projects I did was a photo essay, where I photographed my friends in two different ways to portray the different stories they have to tell. I loved this project because Professor Smith helped me improve my photography and editing skills tenfold. I also loved this class because it was very small and I got to know my classmates very well.
An individual who inspired you? My former martial arts instructor Jenny had the biggest influence on me, as she was the one to truly foster my interest and passion for child development and teaching.
Future plans? I hope to be in the production field working as either an editor or camera operator for fictional TV shows or movies, with a general audience of children and adolescents. Additionally, I think it would be really cool if I could work with middle school age students teaching them video production and photography skills. They could use their skills to create their own short films or photographs, and at the end of their projects they would share their work with their friends and family in a red carpet premiere!

Click here to see Emily's documentary on Multimodal Classrooms!

Episode Transcript

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