My New Schedule

An animation I'm creating in After Effects

It may take some time adjusting to my new schedule this semester. Last week was the first week of the spring semester, and with a new set of classes comes a new routine for me. Since I have class twice per week, I have to make up my hours at work by going in early and staying late certain days of the week. But, it seems to be working out just fine.

My class this semester is called Motion/Visual Effects. We will be learning how to use After Effects, a program used to make those pretty cool graphics you see in movies, TV shows, on the news, and the Web. We started going over the interface in class. My homework for this week included working with some exercise files. After we get a handle on how the features work, we’ll move into some more creative projects.

Despite the fact that some of my days are really busy, I do have one day every week where I don’t have work or class during the winter. I use this day to work on homework, do some cleaning around the house, and continue my volunteer work for a local educational non-profit.

Unfortunately, I can’t attend as many fun activities on campus as I like, but there are a few I’ll be able to take part of in the future. I was looking at the upcoming events on the myMPTC portal, and I was happy to see that many of the acts I suggested we have on campus are booked for this semester. I discovered these speakers and performers at the conferences I went to with Student Senate last year. At the conferences we got to watch these people speak or perform, and we also talked to them one-on-one. Please check out the events calendar and attend some of these events. I’m sure one or two of them will spark your interest.

My schedule will change yet again in March for the second half of the semester. The class I’m taking now is an accelerated course. Once this class is over in March, my other class, Video/Sound Editing, begins. I have been looking forward to this class for a long time. I noticed it a few semesters ago in the course catalog when it was first offered. Having made a video as an assignment for one of my other classes, I was really interested in learning video editing. I am fortunate to be in a position now to take it, along with other classes in the Audio-Video Certificate.

Good luck to all those who have begun classes. It’s going to be a great spring! (Especially after the snow melts and this bitter cold ends!)