Work Samples
I have finally been able to compile my entire current selection of samples of my work. I have essentially a little bit of everything. Please note that the SFA icons are what is clickable to view my samples. These samples are typically what was turned in as an assignment so there are headers. Towards the bottom there are some samples from Backpack Journalism which were created as a sort of blog entry. Now that I've compiled all of the samples, I intend to go back and make them more presentable for this website rather than for college courses. I hope that you'll find my work interesting, thought provoking, unique, and unapologetically honest.
Intermediate Poetry
These pieces of poetry were written during my Fall 2013 semester for my Intermediate Poetry class. Both Christ Abyss and The Chevy are Villanelle's. The majority of my class that semester were just about completely uninterested in any traditional or closed form of poetry. For the first six poems I believe we were allowed to write our poems in any form we so chose. When it came time to complete a portfolio as our final assignment, I chose to write "The Chevy" it being a Villanelle despite being able to write anything in any form I wanted. I felt most comfortable with the Villanelle. When our professor told us it translates to the term "rustic song" I thought there was no way I'd ever write one again. But to my suprise it came most natural to me. Speech Less Free was I believe revised from a open form into a Sestina when it was revised and put into the portfolio.The document titled "These Spaces" is an open form, but when it came time to write my table of contents I decided to change the name, so when you open the document, you'll find that it's titled instead "All The Rooms." There's also a story behind that. This was the only poem we were given a sort of "prompt" for. It had to be about a house or dwelling of some sort, and we had to somehow be inspired by the poet Jamaal May who was going to visit us. I was never good with a more narrative approach in poetry, and so when I began to write the poem I made a serious attempt at a narrative poem. From the feedback I received in one of our Small Group Workshops it did get the narrative approach across.
Intermediate Fiction
These are the only two pieces of fiction I've written so far. I am not entirely comfortable, well really at all with writing fiction, but they weren't entirely torn apart during workshop, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to include them.
These Spaces
The Chevy
Speech Less Free
Christ Abyss
Round One
A Fair Affair
Opinionated Journalistic Pieces
Online Dating
Online Bullying
Group Projects
Good Student
Budgeting in
College
Modern
Christianity
Bi Polar
Disorder
Tipping Etiquette
for Pizza Delivery
Smokers
These 10 articles were all pieces written by myself for the SFA's student-led newspaper The Pine Log. I wrote and photographed for them between Fall 2010 and Spring 2013. Unforunately the last 2 semesters I have been unable to contribute neither articles or photography due to my work and homework schedule. I am honored to have had these pieces published regardless. I unfortunately do not have the 3 articles I wrote and had published in The Teen Trib, a sub-section of The Waco Tribune that I wrote for at age 16.
Introduction to Creative Writing
To Fame and Fortune
This was written as my first taste of fiction writing for my Creative Writing minor. I honestly don't know if it's good or not, but I'd just like to include the majority of my work to give readers a broad spectrum of my writing capabilities.
Tattoo for Dad
This is the first poem I ever wrote to be submitted for a grade. I was and still am incredibly proud of myself for writing this poem with no previous poetry experience.
The Spirit
of Giving
Two Lovers Apart
Forever Saved
This was the third poem I revised for the final portfolio. It is about photography.
Never Pay for a Stranger's Wedding
This is my first creative non-fiction piece. This was my attempt at a somewhat humorous approach to the chaos with my sister not long after I met her at age 18.
Who Am I?
Intermediate Non-Fiction
All 6 of these documents from my very first venture into creative writing. I remember I was so excited to be off academic probation because I was finally able to declare my Photojournalism major. I went to the man's office who I was told to go see to declare my major. We're filling out the paperwork and he asks "Okay, do you have a minor?" I was taken aback, I quisically announced I never realized I needed a minor. He informed me that in fact I did. I just sort of off the top of my head said, well I think I'll take a creative writing class and see if maybe that's what I should minor in. These are from my Introduction to Creative Writing class. When I took that Intro class, I never realized I'd end up definitively declaring it as my minor 2 semesters later. My intention was to just take the Intro class and the following semester take another Intro class in a different department and sort of "shop around." Funny enough, I never took any other Intro classes in any other department. I just started taking classes to develop into a minor. In fact before I came to SFA I had 6 different majors. My Photojournalism major was my 7th major. Strangely when I came to SFA I almost immediately discovered my major after taking the Beginning Digital Photography class. Although I could've gone with a more art based photography major, I knew there wasn't much hope for me passing enough art classes and that whether I liked it or not I am a naturally gifted writer and so I went with the Photojournalism direction.
Lives
Confusion
It may seem odd, and it does not that I think more about it, but in my Intermediate Non-Fiction class we only wrote 2 essays. Our first was themed around Lives, something to do with our life, we could tell our story entirely, or in pieces. I chose to focus on one of the most shameful times in my life that speaks so very loudly to how I painfully had to learn some of the lessons, those "stories" I have today. The second essay was themed around Modern Love. I chose to focus that on my long time best friend and love interest, Tommy.
Advanced Non-Fiction
Hear Me Roar
I'm a Mess
Meeting the Enemy: Money
I'm Listening
Confessions
Mixed Signals
These are the six pieces I wrote for my advanced non-fiction class during the Fall 2013 semester. This class was a lot more lax than an anticipated it would be. There was no final portfolio so I never had to revise these pieces. I simply wrote them, had them workshopped where I received constructive help with future edits and that was the end of that. I would like to revise just about all of these pieces for potential publication, but as of right now this is exactly how they've been left.
Backpack Journalism
Major Submission #1
Major Submission #2
Click the button for the combined audio for the submission.
Click the icon for the story which accompanied the audio for submission #2.
Unfortunately these are the only two major submissions I was able to finish, and the one minor submission I finished. This was not a class I excelled in because I was overwhelmed by the work load of 4 "writing enhanced"(as SFA calls them) courses. I did well on what I did submit, but was unable to submit all of the required submissions in order to complete the class.
Minor Submission #1
Sound Slide
This was the soundslide I was able to complete. Unfortunately I did forget about the need to use horizontal photos primarily rather than vertical and after completion only then did I realize that there were a lot of vertical shots. I feel good about this project by being able to create the video itself with the text slides and audio over it.
Humane Society Projects
Here is the tri-fold brochure I've been working on for the humane society. This is it as an exported PDF. Each "section" would be it's on fold, the top page the far left would be the flap that is folded inside, the middle section would be the back of the brochure, and the far right would be the front. The second page from left to right would be the three inside folds. This project is still a work in progress. This is my first draft, I am now waiting on my boss to proof-read it and us work together to work out the details of what she likes and what she doesn't.
Foster Home Flyer
Cat Care Flyer
Dog Care Flyer
These 3 flyers were created as external links for our website. Part of my job has been to re-vamp the current website. When my boss and I were going page by page through the website, we discovered that these 3 flyers were already linked to the website. We decided that they were helpful as far as being informative, but they were very ugly and if we were going to keep them they needed to be redone. This is what they ended up looking like. These are not really documents to be printed, really just for online viewing from our website.
This is our Rabies Clinic postcard I created. Unfortunately for the current Rabies Clinic running we were unable to get this postcard proofed and edited in time to use it as what is being mailed out. I am hoping to be able to sit down with my boss and finalize this postcard and leave them with the editable file for future clinics, so after my internship ends they will still have access to it.
This is our current membership print-out that is linked from our website for downloading and printing. The vector graphic at the top was something I created myself. This document was basically the same as the 3 documents that are simply linked to our website. It just needed to be redone and made more attractive if we were going to use it. With the membership flyer we wanted something attractive but that since individuals and families were likely going to be using a simple home printer wouldn't be wasting too much ink on to print and mail back to us. We needed a membership print out because we are a non-profit shelter and rely on private donati0ns. We went with the simple but well designed vector graphic at the top with just a little bit of color for a small pop, and just made the font choices and lay out look nicer.
A major selling point for me to intern at the shelter was that they needed someone with my skills but obviously couldn't afford to pay an additional staff member, also they did not have really any access to the software and programs that I own. I own just about all the necessary Adobe programs/software necessary for my career field that enables me to design and create and edit that they had no access to. I went into the internship simply believing all I'd be doing was "playing" on Facebook and taking pictures all day, every day, and that's definitely been far from the reality. I'm actually very pleased that this internship has pushed me into teaching myself a good bit of basic graphic design and website design that I swore in previous semesters I had no use for, to my surprise I did need these skills and have since re-learned and developed a much greater since of programs that are much more necessary for my career than I ever gave them credit for being.
Elements of Craft
I really only want to share one of the two stories from my final class for my minor, Elements of Craft. It was my second story(out of two) and I wasn't thrilled with my first story and I agreed with my professors comments on that story that it definitely lacked conflict. So for my second story I made sure there was conflict.