Covid Creates New Opportunities

STORY CONTRIBUTED BY Kate Beebe '21

Kate Beebe is a senior at Bay Path University studying Digital Arts and Film.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic many of us were forced indoors and unable to attend classes or go to work. Just as Covid hit, I was looking for an internship to fulfill my graduation requirements here at Bay Path. After realizing I did not want to attend an in person internship during the pandemic, and struggling to find something remote, I was able to reach out to my career coach and work out a plan to complete a self study project in place of an internship.

The self study project could be anything related to my major that would teach me basic skills I would need in the industry I am planning to pursue after graduation. I am a film major and would like to pursue a career that involves video editing and scriptwriting after graduation. Therefore, I needed to learn more about those skills. The website Masterclass was the perfect place to learn. Courses from top industry professionals such as Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster, and Spike Lee were just a few of the leading professionals I was able to learn from.

Each month I was assigned to watch two to three courses and then complete a “journal of learning” which was a summary of what I had learned that month. Additionally, I was able to utilize the skills I learned by applying them in videos I created and wrote a script one month to further my skills in that area.

Following the first month of Masterclass learning, I created a video to show off my skills. The first video was for Network News and focused on the issues that people cared most about in the 2020 election. I was grateful to be able to share information about the election with the Bay Path community and encourage voters to understand everything they would be voting for.

After the second month of learning, I created another video! The second video was created for the Bay Path COMMunity Awards that the Bay Path Student Newsroom held back in December. I was able to include some members of the newsroom, myself, and our university President Sandra Doran. Showcased at the awards ceremony and included in the December 2020 edition of Network News, the video showcased our thoughts on the new narrative of women.

In the third month, I took courses about scriptwriting and created another short film script. Short film scripts are generally only five to forty pages. I always love telling romance stories, so I decided to go down that route and ended up with twelve pages. It wasn’t a lot, but I got the story I wanted to tell down on paper. If you would like to read it or any of the other short films that I’ve written click the link to my portfolio down below

In the last month, I was focused on finishing up the self study project and producing my final video. I have been very passionate lately about understanding the pros and cons of social media and technology and how it’s changing our society, which became the final video’s main topic. I hope it can provide some insight to you and encourage you to change some of your daily habits with social media and technology.

Overall, I really enjoyed doing this type of learning as opposed to a traditional internship I would have gotten outside of a pandemic. I would like to thank my career coach, Tracy Trial, and my advisor, Professor Janine Fondon, for all of their help with putting this new experience together with me.

Check out my other works here: https://kbeebe6.wixsite.com/mysite