The first thing I've experienced on this year's STN trip, is the STN Convention itself! This year I've competed in the PSA competition and in Crazy 8's Broadcast Team. In my opinion, this year was much different than last year. Last year, I was in the movie trailer competition, but this time I was in the PSA. Being in a large team last year, limited the things I could do. This year, there is only a total of 3 people in PSA. I thought this would've been difficult with the small amount of people but actually, it let everyone have a part in the competition. I got to be the photographer, and film, while Nicole and Angeline were acting. However, for the STN convention itself, we only needed one actress for our PSA, which was played by Nicole, so Angeline payed attention to the audio along with me (headphone jacks splitters are helpful!) and helped me monitor the shots. Another thing that was different was this year, I'm an editor along with Nicole! At first, I thought editing would be very pressuring and stressful, but it's actually not that much. Nicole and I worked well together and shared thoughts and ideas which would contribute to the improvement of the video. Another difference is that last year it was 'Sweet 16', with 16 hours, but this year, it's 'Crazy 8's', with only 8 hours! I was pretty scared from this drastic change, since I was used to having 16 full hours to create a broadcast, but this time the time was cut in half. However, I think only having 8 hours helped myself getting used to the feeling of being under pressure on a time deadline. I was also one of the main editors which was a new experience, since even more pressure was added to that in making the final video the best it can be and getting it submitted on time. I also went to many breakout sessions where I learned lots of great tips and advice that will help me imrpove my work as an aspiring filmmaker and journalist. However, I'd have to say that one of my favorite experiences of STN would have to be the STN Closing Awards Ceremony. I loved that all of the Hawaii schools sat with each other in the far left, and we all cheered very loudly with #hiSTN pride whenever a Hawaii school won. Even though winning wasn't the real goal here, it felt really cool going onto the stage and collecting the awards. For PSA, Nicole and I went up and it just made me think how all of our fundraisers, practices, and overall hard work, paid off. The same thing goes for Dalson and I when we collected the award for Crazy 8's Broadcast. I felt pretty proud of our team, and our school, for improving our broadcast compared to the practice we had. Overall, the STN Convention was one of my top experiences throughout the trip!
The next top thing I've experienced throughout this year's STN trip is meeting new people and bonding with our classmates. Over the course of 10 days, I sure have made new friends and definitely became closer with a lot of my classmates. It was also pretty interesting meeting all of these people my age, who are passionate about media/film making/broadcast/journalism at the Middle School Mixer! It was also pretty fun running everywhere around the hotel with my group trying to find all of the answers to the questions even though we didn't win. We also got to meet our pen pals from CMStv/Castaic Middle School! My pen pals were, Alexa and Susan. They're both so funny and sweet! We got to do our gift exchange and eat dinner together! I actually got to talk to Alexa at the PSA briefing, and Susan at the STN Party. I even got to talk to some of the high schoolers from Kauai High whenever we saw them. This was good since I miss the former CKTV students and I don't really get to see them that often. But what was best about this trip was that the whole CKTV Ohana bonded and we all came closer together. I tried to hang out with different people, and basically ended up being closer to just about everyone in the class I think. I got to see a different side of people and I think they got to see a different side of me too. I also like how we did those Anonymous cards, where we write something nice according to the theme of the day, about a certain person, anonymously. To sum it up, one of my top three experiences of the 2015 STN trip has been bonding and meeting new people.
Last, but not least, a top experience from this year's STN trip has been touring university campus'; USC, and SDSU. We first got the great opportunity to tour USC, or the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. With italian architecture and green grass, USC's campus is absolutely stunning! But there majors and minors, and all they have to offer is even better. They have a cinematic arts school and also an Annenberg Broadcast and Journalism school. Did you know that USC is one of the top film schools in the nation? It's also one of the top film schools on my list for colleges. Being that, It was an amazing opportunity to be able to actually go there and take a tour and see what it's like! Another university we toured was the San Diego State University. We got to see some of the buildings and their residence halls. We also got to learn what they offered in terms of media. Like Mr. M said, it's never too early to be thinking of college! For me, I think I may be considering taking up something in cinematic arts or broadcast journalism when I grow up, so being able to see all these film schools really help! Even when we went to Full Sail University last year in Florida was awesome! Getting to tour universities was surely a top experience for me.
In conclusion, my 2015 STN Trip top three is the STN convention, bonding and meeting new people, and touring universities. The 2015 Trip has been amazing, and I am so lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to be able to go on this trip. Thank You to everyone; from parents to chaperones to Mr. M, to the whole community! Thank You! Well, that's it for this weeks constructed response! Thanks for reading! Bye!