LEIF HELLANDS PORTFOLIO

What all could be gained from a digital communications and journalism major

By Leif Helland

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla- Miguel Rios was telling me that on his days off from studying and working with student government, he enjoys taking walks through campus. Rios is just one example of the students I interviewed about what their relationship looks like to the University of South Florida.

Rios is one of the many students apart of the Digital Communications and Multimedia Journalism degree path here at USF. Although all the students here share the same path, all their stories are different from one another. What a major like this shows is the different impacts that it may carry onto students and how one’s expectations may look different compared to another’s.

Rios goes on to tell me why communication is important to him and how this type of challenge will allow him to make more friends or connections. Rios tells me about how he spent his time in high school as very quiet and not having many friends and that he was ready for a change.

“Communication is so much more then what you learn inside of the classroom, its what you learn outside of the classroom like at your job or work,” said Rios.

Native to Cape Coral, Fla, Sofia Modica discussed with me why she wanted to pursue a Digital Communication major. Modica told me about her passion for writing, social media marketing and photojournalism. When she isn’t busy with assignments or as the editor of “Her Campus Magazine”, she owns a small business as a local photographer.

“I mostly do weddings and engagements, its my baby. I started it about 8 months ago and its already doing pretty well,” said Modica.

The paths that students choose in their lives led them here together at USF. Each one of these students has found a different purpose for what they expect to gain from their major. These experiences will be carried out with them for the rest of their lives in how they decide to reinvent themselves.

Nicole Domante came from Osceola High School just local to the Seminole and Largo, Fl area. She tells me that her freshman year here of high school was a struggle. “I hated my freshman year, it was horrendous, but you live and learn. When you think people that are in your group that are there for you and rooting for you sometimes doesn’t happen,” said Domante. Although she had a rough time at Osceola, she was influenced by the digital design program there.

Because USF has a strict policy for its class size in a Graphic Design major, Domante, through the advice of her counselor, was told that the closest thing would be the Digital Communications major. Later she tells me how she enjoyed all of what USF has had to offer and her pursuit of becoming a graphic designer.

These stories intertwine themselves inside the beginning reporting class where for different reasons they all found a home at USF to pursue their desired interests. Even though they had humble beginnings, the students at USF understood that it became less of what they want to what it is that they need.