Reflection of my time

Self-Reflection

Being a student at St. Norbert in the Communication and Media Studies department has not only caused me to gain more knowledge, but also allowed me to grow as an individual. I have learned a lot about myself throughout what feels like the short four years I attended. Over the course of these four years I have been informed on all variations of media messages and communication. With media effecting such a large part of our society, it was valuable to learn how these messages can have an impact on many peoples lives without even knowing it. It is important to evaluate every mass media message that you see on the screen because you can never really know what's behind it. In turn, I believe this made me a better consumer of media. I am more conscious when it comes to viewing, and actively part-taking in media. This ranges from the popular social media sites, down to television and films I watch. I am aware that everything has a meaning, even if they never say it explicitly. My area of concentration was more on the media aspect of communication. I enjoyed evaluating the effects that media in general had on teens. This included more social scientific research where I took various researched topics such as if body image, or violent video games effects teens. I liked focusing on the younger generations, as I feel like they were always surrounded by some sort of media the second they were born. By concentrating on these areas, I found my interest of social media and how various companies can allow things such as poor body image to continue to happen. After graduation, I have interests in specifically social media. Whether that be marketing, or controlling the way society sees a brand, I would love to be pursuing that. I like to take my creative ideas and incorporate them with other individuals to come up with a common idea that encompasses a business. I enjoy building and even evaluating how a business can improve even if it is a small amount. Outside of the classroom, the biggest influence that I have had would be volunteering at NAMI Fox Valley. I had the privelege of working with teens in various support groups to help them overcome and talk about mental health. I think mental health is just as important as physical health, and by helping these teens it helped me learn to take everything one step at a time. I am very thankful that over the course of three years working with the same group of teens, I was able to see them grow as individuals, which in turn helped me grow as one too.