Cover Letter

Hello everyone I am Sheila Vargas. Here's a little bit about me. I am a very respectful person and you'll always see me with a smile on my face, I am also a very funny person. I am currently in Harry S Truman High School and I will be graduating in 2019. After graduating I look forward to going to college and becoming a psychologist. My dream is to become a child psychologist who works with children who are facing trauma, to help them deal with stress and so much more. One of my goals is to be able to move my family forward to live a better life in the United States.

 

As part of the College Now|EVC New Media Arts program this semester at Bronx Community College,  I have learned a variety of things to help me prepare for college. I enjoyed learning how to create a website, becoming a better photographer, keeping track of time and the two different types of mindsets that there are, which are fixed mindset and growth mindset. As a “newbie”, the process of making the website wasn't as tough as it looked. Once I tinkered with the Wix program, I learned how to  create the pages, making sure everything is where it's supposed to go. It went pretty well, and the collaborative process of working with my classmates and professors impacted me personally by making me become more aware about issues, and how to write with better structure, organization and grammar.

 

My participation in EVC's New Media Arts Workshop has been amazing, learning how to use professional cameras, learning how to edit videos and how to work together with other youth producers. The group website, and the Remix documentary we made, focused on an issue of concern to us, which is how violence is portrayed in the media, and how it affects us individually and in our communities. We are trying to find an answer to our main question which is "Are violent humans born or made?" We are taking a close look at what people think based on this question. Through research, and conducting interviews with experts and people in general, we learned that violence is something that develops due to the environment you live in, and the things you experience. This social issue is important because it's something we see everyday, and it affects many families. It's what little kids are growing up in, which brings no good. A lot of community members create support groups or organizations to help people control their anger, to help solve there problems and much more.

 

Something I learned about the social justice/community is that we can try to change the way our generation is if only we stop responding to situations in negative ways. There are many solutions to our problems, we just have to look  for or make them happen. To address how we think we can contribute to an anti-violence solution, in addition to the website and documentary remix, we youth producers created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) within our documentary. It's something creative that we hope changes the mindset of many people -- something that we hope will inspire others to make them think about their actions before they do anything negative.

 

I have done many things throughout my life including, being part of the JROTC program at my school. This program has helped me in many ways in becoming responsible and having more discipline. That work, and the work that I did in this College Now|EVC New Media Arts program has convinced me that I am passionate about becoming a psychologist to help children -- especially those who have experienced violence and other traumatic experiences in their lives. In addition,  I have experience and skills in working with children already, having worked as a tutor, so I can combine these experiences to help me learn more in the field of child psychology.

 

My time this summer was well spent at the College Now and EVC|New Media Arts program. I’ve grown so much in my thinking ability, and I have some new technical and professional skills under my belt.  I have learned how to use a camera and how to use it's features to make a picture or video to make it look as professional as it should. I have also learned that being in college is a way to learn, also how to understand the importance of professionalism. I have gained confidence in how I present myself, in public speaking and in completing, collaborating and sharing my work with others. These and other skills such as keeping track of my time and not wasting any of it, respecting and meeting deadlines, and using time wisely because time does matter! Never wait until it's due. All of these abilities are skills I will definitely use in the future.