Hello, my name is Rex Harrison, and I am a sociology and philosophy double major at Furman University who is graduating this summer. In addition, I am currently conducting an internship through a nonprofit called Youthbase Inc, which is an after-school and summer program for underprivileged kids in kindergarten-2nd grade attending schools in the Greenville area. Writing this blog is somewhat extraordinary for myself. That is to say, I have never really done this before, so I humbly ask any readers bear with me as I work out the quirks. During a period of several weeks, I will be participating in a digital communications course, and this will be the first of many blogs I plan on writing during that time. This post’s purpose is to more or less establish some background information about myself, why I am doing this, and what I plan to accomplish with both this class and to some extent, my life.
WordPress is the chosen platform for my blog due to its nature as an emerging developmental tool in many career fields. I believe a greater understanding of such a tool will only be beneficial to myself and whomever employs me in the future. Although it is subject to modification as time progresses, my initial design choices are a result of my wish to have a clean and elegant presentation. I believe the theme, “Ryu,” fulfills this wish remarkably. Furthermore, it seems to have flexibility in allowing me to incorporate various forms of media, color, and format styles.
My basic mission for this course is threefold. First, I wish to acquire the skills necessary to have sufficient proficiency and perhaps even expertise in using the tools prevalent in digital communications such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop. Second, I hope I develop in writing, photography, and videography, as these things provide the foundation for the above mentioned tools to build upon. Finally, I hope in the process of maintaining this blog, I will shed light upon issues important to me and create a body of work which I can proudly display to represent myself and my abilities.
To give some further background to myself, I am 22-years old, Asian-American, and currently living in Greenville, SC to attend the aforementioned Furman University. I majored in philosophy due to my fascination with abstract problems regarding the nature of the universe. This led me to an intro class and created a love of the subject almost immediately, especially after I read the work of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. Sociology was pursued out of curiosity, not knowing what the field was really about prior to taking an introductory course. I found the theories of Pierre Bourdieu appealing and qualitative research processes involved and interesting. Most importantly, I felt the overall subject matter would transition well into the realm of social work, which I hope to eventually pursue for a master’s degree in graduate school. After graduation, I intend to move to the Northeast around New York and New Jersey, located so that I can take a train into New York City at a whim. It is my desire to obtain a year of experience working before pursuing further education, provided that work does not lead into significant career opportunities prior to that year’s expiration. Although I intend to be flexible with my job and career aspirations, it is my primary desire to help others who face significant disadvantage in realms such as career opportunities and education due to factors such as race or poverty. My ideal job is to be a school guidance counselor, helping kids or young adults stay on the right track and make sure they get afforded the same opportunities I was. A mixture of coming from a working class background and the invaluable assistance of a high school guidance counselor serves as my inspiration for this dream job.
The last bit of my background and the nature of my internship actually lead me into a couple of interrelated topics I wish to discuss in addition to the digital communications techniques I will be covering. As noted, educational opportunities can often be barred by one’s lack of economic and cultural capital due to personal background. To simplify those two concepts, cultural capital are simply elements of culture which one will be immersed in and have access to based on one’s social class. As an extreme example, members of the working class are not generally going to be aware of or participating in dressage contests. Economic capital is plainly the economic resources one has available. The poverty one is born into can serve as a major barrier to obtaining these two forms of capital, and thus, can raise difficulties in obtaining the proper education necessary for children to do well in relation to their peers in school. To exemplify this, consider the necessity of a single mother to work multiple jobs leading to her having far less time to help with homework and read to her children than a two-parent household. Obviously, these shortcomings in education lead to fewer opportunities as one’s life progresses. Simply put, poverty perpetuates disadvantage, particularly in the realm of education. I hope to examine these issues further as the blog progresses, and I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Communication Does Compute 