Coming here for OIDJ has been an extraordinary experience so far. On day 1 we basically got to tour a bit of the Gaylord Hall. Afterwards, we got the opportunity to introduce ourselves and get to know each other. Some of us made friends quite fast and some of us are now just coming out of our shells, like myself. Everyone has been so kind and respectful to each other that it literally feels like we are family.
After we played some get-to-know-you games we headed to our first session– blogging. I found this session useful because I wanted to blog about healthy eating and make a living by being myself.
We got to make our own blogs, which was really fun, especially when we got the chance to customize our own pages.
A little while after, we moved on to the Social Media presentation where we learned the Do’s and Don’ts of online posting how it can harm your self-image. It is important to be careful what is posted on Social Media.
A while later we headed back to our dorms and got to hang out with the OIDJ students and the staff members and played few games. I thought this was a good way to get to know everyone and have fun. I enjoyed myself, and I can tell everyone had fun. At the end of the day we returned to our dorm rooms and got to tell my family all about my first day at OIDJ.
The next morning, we woke up fairly early and got dressed up for our tour of The Oklahoman. I learned so much from it, like advertising. We learned about what advertisers have to do to sell ads and bring interest to people.
The journalists were so professional and had so much to say on what they do and on what it means to be in the position that they are in. They also talked about the ups and downs in their years of experience in journalism.
After The Oklahoman we stopped by Subway for some lunch and I have to say that the “Italian B.M.T” was delicious!
Once we got back on campus, we headed back to the dorms to change into something more comfortable for a walking tour of The University of Oklahoma. The campus tour was so fun! I enjoyed learning the history of the campus and all the different professions people can study here.
Later on, we had one more presentation, this one was about interviewing.
This presentation taught me how to keep a conversation going. After the interviewing session, we had another one on Journalism Majors, which gave us some ideas on what to study in college; in a way, it helped me boost up my confidence.
Once that session was over, went to dinner and talked about what we wanted to do in the future and what had interested us so far.
Right now I am interested in Photography and I got really good advice from the staff members on how to take great photo. It helped me and encouraged me a lot to take more pictures.
After dinner we walked back to Gaylord for another session about Creating a Profile. I thought this was very fun. We learned that everyone has a story to be told, you just need to ask the right questions.
I’ve had such a great experience so far with learning about journalism and hanging around with my new friends. So far, this has really brought my shell; all thanks to everyone being so nice. Can’t wait to see what lies ahead of this experience.
