War Eagle
I have not had what is in most people’s minds as the “typical college experience.” My first semester at Auburn University was in the fall of 2018, since then I have:
- Changed my major 5 times
- Switched colleges within the University 4 times.
- Lived in 4 different apartment complexes.
- Worked 4 different jobs.
- Had 2 major surgeries.
- Torn 2 ligaments off of my ankle.
- Had 1 severe concussion with memory loss.
- Experienced 1 global pandemic that shut campus down.
Many things have also happened within the University, such as:
- Having 2 different athletic directors.
- Auburn students ranking 1st for “Happiest Students” in 2024.
- Having 3 different football head coaches.
- Winning 8 SEC championships.
- Reaching 2 Final Fours in men’s basketball.
- Both Equestrian and Men’s Golf winning national championships (2019 and 2025, respectively).
- Having 2 different athletic brand sponsors.
There are many different ways to measure my time as a student at Auburn, and there are many more that I did not include. However, all of them have to be combined to encapsulate my experience. My experience has been unique and I would not change that for anything. Without it, I would not have found Interdisciplinary Studies and War Eagle Productions to be where I am now.
Interdisciplinary Studies may be an unfamiliar topic to most. In a general sense, Interdisciplinary Studies combats the status quo of focusing on one single topic or discipline in life and instead opting to learn how to implement different methods and knowledge of multiple disciplines to any given problem. We as interdisciplinarians hope to look at a situation with a desire to have a comprehensive and complete understanding of a problem without using disciplinary bias. Personally, I have concentrations in business management and sports journalism. These concentrations benefit my career in live sports media by allowing me to draw on knowledge I have learned in both disciplines to approach problems that arise while working. They also have come in handy during my internship, which you can read more about on my “Internship” page. I have enjoyed learning about interdisciplinary studies during my time at Auburn and know that what I have learned has and will affect every aspect of my life moving forward.
One of the assignments that had an impact on me was a directing assignment. As a cameraman, it was interesting putting myself in the mindset of a director. We are told that while we are on camera we need to, “direct from our camera position.” Meaning, we need to think about what the director would want from us and what we think would be best for the broadcast from our perspective. however, this assignment took it a step further and made me think about every camera position and what would look best from each. The assignment allowed me to take on an interdisciplinary approach since many people rely on what the cameras show. Directors rely on shots to take live on air, while the producer and replay operators rely on our looks for replays and clip packages. The Audio Engineer 1 relies on the cameras to see where the players are and which microphones need to be mixed into the feed, and the shader relies on the cameras to be able to color grade and expose the cameras correctly for uniformity. If someone is not using their camera properly, the other people involved can lose the flow trying to make up for the one’s mistakes. This assignment provided me an opportunity to widen my perspective, which in turn helped me in decision making while on shift.