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Final Project

For my final, I chose the story making project. The premise of my story is that the pandemic has already essentially set in to society. I remained vague about the specifics of the disease as I thought it would be more important to deeply explore a single idea rather than spread myself across too many details. This also helped me reveal the idea of the disease slowly and deliberately, rather than cramming in a news segment for exposition. In its most basic form the disease takes away your ability to perceive depth, which we can assume to be a spinning sensation or panoramic vision. The one clearly defined rule about the disease is that you can see regularly through a mirror, since it is a flat reflection. There was a lot I wanted to communicate through visuals and through characters so I chose to write a screenplay. It is a short screenplay, so, in an attempt to be metaphorical and subtle there may be some ideas that are underdeveloped, at least in how they are conveyed to the audience.

Phase 2, Post 13: Ansh Patel & Jordi Frank

I think particularly during this time it was really good to hear from recent graduates, and how they transitioned from college life to career life. It is easy to get caught up in here and now, and how important school is right now. But it is always reassuring and affirming to hear about life post-NYU. Ansh Patel does work with Alzheimer's epilepsy patients, and while that is not necessarily a field that I would be going into, it was nice to hear about since I recently lost my grandmother, who had Alzheimer's. Ansh also brought up game design and how he wanted it to be his passion, not his career. I thought this was really interesting because there are a lot of hobbies or passions that I used to have in high school that people would always ask me why I didn't decide to pursue them, and I think that is because of this reason, that there are things that I keep as passions and things that I keep as career. But that doesn't mean that I'm less passionate about my career.

Phase 2, Post 12: Story Making Workshop

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Edit: These are just the stream of consciousness notes I took, take a look at a later draft under Final Project!

Phase 2, Post 11: Michael Higgins

I was really engaged in this presentation because I actually live in one of the buildings that Michael Higgins brought up. It was really cool experiencing the tour through online Google Maps, and it was especially interesting to learn so much more about the street that I live on and the area that I spend almost every day. It also made it clear how Brooklyn has changed over time and how it has been subject to gentrification. I remember a friend of mine once told me that MetroTech was laid out very specifically and with a purpose. So it was really cool to hear that affirmed that it was designed to be an urban renewal site. There were other really cool and almost wild facts like how 20,000 apartments have been built in Brooklyn, just in the last few years. 

Phase 2, Post 10: Chris Woods

Chris Woods talked about the LGBTQ+ Center at NYU. I was really interested in this lecture and even more engaged in this one than other ones because not only did Chris explain to us a lot of the efforts that the center takes, he also really involved us and treated our  discussion as though we were acting under those guidelines. I think one of the most important things that Chris emphasized was comfort. He was he was making sure that everybody was comfortable. It was about making the entire class and everybody around him feel comfortable, whatever their identity was, and if they even wanted to identify. Another thing I think was important that Chris brought up was talking about the phrase queer. Originally, queer meant odd and strange and was incredibly offensive towards the community. While largely we think that this phrase has been reclaimed, it is important to remember the implications behind it and the history behind it and how it is important to use terms that everybody around you

Phase 2, Post 9: Raechel Bosch & Jerry Leverette

Raechel Bosh talk about NYU's college programs for incarcerated individuals. I was really interested to learn more about this because I did not know that so many prisons had education programs. Furthermore, the classroom that Rachel showed looked inviting and familiar. However, it was interesting to see that safety precautions were still maintained: everything that went in to the program was check for security purposes. This actually reminds me of how everything is checked in psychiatric wards and how context results in different treatment. When Jerry started talking about his story, I was really excited to hear more about how this college program directly affected somebody firsthand. I thought it was really cool that Jerry had actually chosen to join the program, and that it wasn't required. It was also cool to know that he works for NYU. I was so glad to hear that he felt welcomed by the community when he arrived. It makes me proud to be a part of this community. 

Phase 2, Post 8: Michael Lindsey & Uzoma Orchingwa

Michael Lindsey talked about the McSilver Institute and its goal to find the actual causes behind poverty and address consequences that arise because of them. The McSilver Institute has university wide reach and takes initiatives on that large of a scale. They attempt to reduce inequality and bring together diverse faculty together to discuss ways to address inequality and reduce it as much as possible. The McSilver Institute is also a very large Institute, and has many partners that were shown to us.  Uzoma Orchingwa talked about Ameelio, which is a free way to send mail to someone that is incarcerated. There are no entry requirements and it is free. It takes away the costs of stamps and the cost of mailing. Making this service accessible and free is important to incarcerated people and their social interactions, as most of these people communicate with their children through the mail. Ameelio is not being funded by a major corporation, and yet still boasts over 500 letters just with